The final day of classes in Ukraine is normally a festive occasion when gleeful students get dressed up and jump into fountains — and as tradition dictates, the smallest student climbs onto the shoulders of the tallest to ring a bell marking the school year’s end.
This year, in the throes of a devastating war that has forced millions of children from their homes and reduced schoolhouses to rubble, many schools made do on Friday by holding virtual “last bell” ceremonies online, with some of the children signing on from overseas where their families have fled to escape the violence.
Near the front lines of the war in the country’s east, a local official lamented that instead of the bell, children were hearing gunfire and explosions.
“The last bell did not ring today in Luhansk region,” Serhiy Hadai, the head of the region’s military administration, wrote on his Facebook page. “Those children who still remain in the area’s bomb shelters listened to the cannonade.”
