Children play with soap bubbles during the traditional back to school celebrations in Kyiv, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
Parents and children in Ukraine and Russia gathered on Tuesday for a traditional ‘Knowledge Day’ celebrations, marking the fifth school year since Russia’s invasion, but an air raid alert quickly dispersed the crowd in Kyiv.
Cadets sing the national anthem on the first day at school in a cadet lyceum in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)A final-year student carries a first-grade schoolgirl as she rings a symbolic bell for first graders on the first day of a school year, aslo known as the Knowledge Day, in Moscow, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)Children and teachers walk into an underground shelter following an air raid alarm during the traditional back to school celebrations in Kyiv, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. The paper in the wall reads in Ukrainian: “Shelter”. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)Schoolgirls work on a lesson in a bomb shelter during a Russian air attack on the first day at school at a cadet lyceum in Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)First graders gather on the first day of a school year, aslo known as the Knowledge Day, in Moscow, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)Teachers conduct online lessons for elementary students from a public school damaged by a Russian attack, in Kyiv, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Dan Bashakov)Children observe a daily nationwide minute of silence in memory of soldiers killed in the war with Russia during the traditional back to school celebrations in Kyiv, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)A choir performs on the first day of a school year, aslo known as the Knowledge Day, in Moscow, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)School children enter an underground school on their first day back, in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrii Marienko)A schoolboy arrives in a school on the first day of a school year, aslo known as the Knowledge Day, in Moscow, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Pavel Bednyakov)Children play in an underground shelter during an air raid alarm during the traditional back to school celebrations in Kyiv, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
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