Shocking footage has revealed a heartbreaking sight as teachers decorate a bomb shelter transformed into a classroom for children in Ukraine.
The walls are covered in child-friendly posters and there are desks for them to sit at and learn.
The rest of the room looks somewhat industrial as children sit in the makeshift classroom to escape Vladimir Putin's bombs.
Tetiana Sevchuk works for the Anti-Corruption Action Centre which deals with asset recovery, targeting corruption and money laundering.
She said her 6-year-old niece, Uliana, would be attending the school and it was "physically painful" for her to watch the video.
She wrote on Twitter : "This video is physically painful for me to watch. My niece is [six], it's her first school day and this is a bomb shelter prepared for her class."
"Teachers put lots of effort and love to add some normality and cosiness to space, but it hurts that our children should experience this."
Tetiana told the Mirror her niece enjoyed her first day at school and said she hopes "she won't be disappointed when all the next days won't be so festive and entertaining."
"Teachers decided to make it more like a festival and familiarization with the school, rather than a formal study day. So they had a puppet play and some sort of kids' disco," she added.
Uliana remains well-informed about the war, coming across information about it on TikTok, with adults around her explaining the situation in the best way they can.
It is not yet known what effect the war will have on children's mental well-being and educational prospects.
Away from the excitement of the return to school, the lurking shadow of the war sadly remained. Tetiana's niece and her fellow brave schoolchildren were given a tour of the school and trained in an emergency evacuation to the shelter.
Each child must carry a separate emergency kit to school which has medicine, food and water inside.
"Thank god no real air raid sirens were on that day," Tetiana noted.
Uliana's school was required to pass a test by the city authorities, with them insisting in-person lessons can only be given if there is adequate shelter in the facility.
Tetiana explained: "The city they live in is located in the north of Ukraine, and if the missiles are launched from the territory of Belarus they only have five to seven minutes to get to the shelter before missiles reach a target.
"So the school administration decided that only first and second graders will study at school, all the others will study online - so the school is less crowded and any emergency evacuation is done swiftly."
A report by UNICEF in August documented Ukrainian children's return to school in the country, as some buildings remain with bullet holes in globes, damage from tank and shell fire and collapsed walls and ceilings.
Buzova school, not Uliana's school, in the Kyiv region is now an empty shell of a building, once holding 500 children from the surrounding area.
Anya, eight, was looking forward to returning but had to be stopped.
She said: "When I arrived, I wanted very much to go into the school and see what was here. I wanted to see my class, but my dad wouldn't let me go into the school because it was all smashed up."
As bombs began falling, Anya hid in her basement with her family.
She added: "Peace is where there is tranquillity, no bombs, no planes flying over our heads."
In late May, UNICEF said they estimated that at least 262 children have been killed and 415 injured since the war broke out in late February.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office put this figure at 379 by the end of August, though the actual count is still believed to be far higher.
Putin's actions in Ukraine have seen large civilian areas targeted by air strikes, killing thousands and disrupting the lives of millions.
This has a huge impact on the lives of children and their right to an education as they become part of the millions displaced, attempting to flee falling bombs.
Save the Children estimates a child from Ukraine has "become a refugee every single second of the war" and two-thirds of children in the country have fled their homes.
A total of 7.7 million people in Ukraine have been displaced internally so far, with UNICEF saying children make up half of all refugees.
They said: "UNICEF estimates that more than 2.5 million children have been internally displaced within Ukraine. The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has documented more than 100 children have been killed during the conflict, and a further 134 children have been injured.
"The true toll is likely to be much higher."
