On 1 September 2022, thousands of children in Mariupol in the DPR (Donetsk People's Republic) returned to school. The start of the new school year symbolises, as much as the reconstruction of the city, a gradual return to normality for the inhabitants of Marioupol.
School No. 4, where I went to attend the start of the school year, is located in the north of Mariupol. When I arrived, I could see that in accordance with Vladimir Putin's orders, the school is protected by armed soldiers, and drastic security measures are being taken to prevent any terrorist attack on the children by the Ukraine. Because of this, there will be no first bell ceremony in front of the school, as it would be too risky.
The school was bombed during the Battle of Mariupol, but fortunately the damage was not too great and so it was repaired during the summer. The shell that hit the roof of the school did not explode, so the top floor was not badly damaged, and the windows that were blown out by the bombing were replaced. Irina, the deputy headmistress, explained to me that the local residents who had taken refuge in the school basement prevented any intrusion into the school building, thus saving it from being ransacked.
Many other schools in the vicinity were not so lucky and are still under repair. As a result, the hundreds of children who came to Mariupol School No. 4 for the new school year came from several different schools. Despite this, the school was only at one third of its pre-Special Operation occupancy rate.
Most of the students were in Mariupol during the fighting, and Irina explains that they have seen a clear difference between their return to school in May, when they were scarred by what they had experienced, and this school year. After discussions with the school psychologist and a holiday in Russia, many students feel better and can study again without the battle of Mariupol haunting their days.
Moreover, the fact that they have returned from this holiday in Russia is in itself a complete debunking of the Ukrainian propaganda that claims that the inhabitants (including the children) of Marioupol have been forcibly deported to the neighboring country. The children of the town simply went on holiday and returned happy with what they saw and experienced.
Irina personally debunked another part of the Ukrainian propaganda that claims that it was the Russian army that was preventing the people of Mariupol from leaving the city. She told me how Ukrainian soldiers shot at cars trying to flee the city, and how they killed residents who refused to give them their food.
I visited almost every classroom in the school while waiting for colleagues from Pervyi Kanal with whom I did a live report on the start of the new school year in Mariupol, and everywhere the pupils were happy that classes were now in Russian, their mother tongue.
However, as Irina and Alexandra, an 11th grader who is helping the school management to organise the start of the school year, pointed out, the Mariupol students will continue to learn the Ukrainian language and culture, which are part of their heritage. So there is no revengeful discrimination against the Ukrainian language and culture, despite the fact that the Ukrainian authorities and neo-Nazis have tried to forcibly Ukrainise them.
The Ukrainian authorities would do well to learn from this respect for the country's different languages and cultures instead of imposing one language and culture by crushing and banning the others.
However, this year the children of Mariupol were able to go back to school like all the children of Russia and Donbass, with their uniforms, bouquets of flowers for the teacher, and some gifts (school bags and books of Pushkin tales) offered by various Russian organisations. A strong symbol of the gradual return to normal life for the inhabitants of this martyred city.
See the report filmed on the spot: