70% of schools in Ukraine are equipped with bomb shelters – education minister

67.8% of educational institutions in Ukraine are provided with bomb shelters, but work on arranging and constructing new ones is ongoing. 

Minister of Education and Science Oksen Lisovyi announced that the government allocated 1.5 billion hryvnias from the state budget to implement it, Ukrinform reports.

Lisovyi cited the data from the regional and city military administrations that as of mid-June 2023, 19,125 objects (buildings) of educational institutions are ready for the educational process in full-time education according to the proper indicators.

"The provision of the educational process participants with protective structures of civil defense makes up 67.81% of the total number of such facilities and allows providing shelter for 4,652.41 thousand participants in the educational process (56.28%) in them," Lisovyi noted.

According to the minister, ensuring the safety of educational institutions by arranging and constructing shelters in educational institutions is an integral part of creating a safe educational environment.

To equip existing and build new protective structures, the State Budget of Ukraine for 2023 foresees expenditures under the budget program "Subsidy from the state budget to local budgets to establish safe conditions in institutions of general secondary education" for 1 billion 500 million UAH, which are used in order, determined by the Cabinet of Ministers.

"The Ministry of Education and Culture systematically monitors the execution of construction, reconstruction, and major repairs, financed by subventions from the state budget to local budgets for safe conditions in educational institutions," Lisovyi added. According to information from the regional administrations and the Kyiv city military administration, project and estimate documentation is being prepared in the regions, and public procurement procedures are being carried out.

Background

Usable shelters comprise 77% of the total bomb shelters and can accommodate 43% of Ukraine's population.

After the death of three people who could not get into the shelter during the Russian rocket attack on Ukraine's capital Kyiv, President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered a full audit of all protective structures in the capital and throughout the country.

At a meeting on June 23, the National Security and Defense Council instructed the Cabinet of Ministers and regional and local authorities to take measures to bring the persons responsible for the unsatisfactory shelters to disciplinary responsibility and to ensure systematic inspections.