On this Thursday 1er September, back-to-school day in war-torn Ukraine, Olena and Sofiya’s little schoolgirl backpacks have remained all day on the rear shelf of their parents’ car, yellow for one, black for the other. After two days spent on dangerous roads to travel 300 kilometers from their village, in an area occupied by the Russians, after the anguish of interrogations at checkpoints and the bombardments, it is 5:30 p.m. and they have just arrived in the area. free. Around them, in the parking lot of the commercial area of Epicentr, in Zaporizhia, in the south-east of Ukraine, only 30 kilometers from the demarcation line with the occupied zone, other Ukrainians from the same convoy are supported by NGOs and the authorities.
Zaporijia is the obligatory and unique entry point for all displaced persons coming from the occupied zone, whether they come from Donbass, Crimea or Kherson. Olena, Sofiya and their parents left the village of Dmytrivka in Kherson Oblast the morning before, two days after the start of the Ukrainian counter-offensive in this region. “The violence of the fighting was one of the factors that pushed us to leave, explains the mother, Nataliya. But the main reason is that we were afraid for our children because of the start of the school year. The Russians wanted to force our daughters to go to a Russian school. They told us that if we refused, the children would be placed in an orphanage. »
Several families of displaced persons who have arrived in recent days from the occupied zone with whom The world spoke reported these threats as one of the main reasons for their flight. “If we refused to put our child in a Russian schoolsays Denys, who arrived the day before with his wife and 8-year-old son from Nova Kakhovka, east of Kherson, on the banks of the Dnieperthey fined us 40,000 rubles [655 euros], if they refused a second time, the fine rose to 148,000 rubles. At the third refusal, they put our son in an orphanage. »
Refusal to teach in Russian
Most teachers refuse to cooperate. Two of them were arrested recently in Enerhodar, the city of the nearby nuclear power station controlled by the Russians. One was released, the other is still in prison. Some accept, for the salary. A refugee for two months in Zaporijia, the mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov, manages the return to school of his fellow citizens from a distance, whether they are in the occupied zone or in the free zone. “The school that the Russians wanted to open this 1er September has no success, they have been forced to delay the start of the school year. For our part, we are launching our own platform to support students who have stayed behind, so that they can download the courses in Ukrainian to follow them even if the Russians cut the Internet. »
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