Kyiv School Denies Two Children Entry to Bomb Shelter With Their Dog

In Kyiv's Sviatoshyn district, a school guard refused entry to two children who came with their pet dog during an air raid alert, as reported by the National Police Department's press service.

The incident occurred on Dec. 14 around 3:30 p.m. The siblings, a 12-year-old boy and his 11-year-old sister were trying to enter he bomb shelter at the school in the Svyatoshyn district, of Kyiv where they study.

“However, the guard did not allow them into the bomb shelter of the educational institution,” the report said.

The guard prohibited the children from entering with their pet a Maltese-Poodle (Maltipoo) cross. “With his actions, the guard left the children in danger during possible shelling. Investigators have initiated criminal proceedings under Part 1 of Article 135 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – leaving them in danger,” the message says.

Journalist Tetyana Danylenko shared a post on her Facebook page Sasha and Bohdan went to the shelter of school #40 with their pet dog.

The security guard refused to let them in with the animal, and while the children sought another shelter, Kyiv’s air defense forces shot down a Russian missile near their location. They called their mother in a panic.

“When the girl called already in hysterics, because she was terribly scared, mother Lyubov had to leave work early to calm down Sasha and Bohdan and understand the situation,” Danylenko saied.

The school's director claimed that the guard had no alternative action, citing potential allergies of other schoolchildren to dogs, even though the Maltipoo is considered to be a hypoallergenic breed.

Commenting on the loss of their father Danylenko added that it was “Terrible symbolism for the widow of the deceased hero – the situation with the children happened exactly in the place where her beloved “Yura” came to volunteer on Feb. 24, 2022 [the day Russia’s invasion started], and never returned home.”

The journalist noted that the police arrived at the scene, “and the mother directly asked who would be to blame if something irreparable happened to the children.” However, the law enforcement officers who attended the scene merely answered with a shrug of the shoulders according to Danylenko.

Kyiv police spokesman Dmytro Hryshchenko explained in a commentary to “Ukrainska Pravda. Life” that law enforcement officers would need some time to open criminal proceedings.

“Criminal proceedings do not start directly at the scene of the incident. First, the basic evidence was collected, witnesses were interviewed. Only then did the investigator enter information into the Unified Register of Pretrial Investigations,” the spokesman said.

The Minister of Education and Science, Oksen Lisovyi, has already reacted to the incident, stressing that such a situation is unacceptable.

“Unfortunately, cases when people cannot get to the bomb shelter for various reasons are not isolated. But this is all a matter of safety, preservation of human lives. We cannot neglect this,” Lisovyi wrote on his Twitter account.

“Please, if you do not know how to act in any situation, you do not have clear instructions and you are thinking about whether or not to let a person into the bomb shelter, be guided by humanity and universal human values,” the minister urged.

On June 1, Kyiv authorities faced difficult questions after reports emerged that three people had been killed during a nighttime Russian missile attack while trying to gain access to a bomb shelter that was closed.

A nine-year-old girl, her mother and another woman were struck by debris from an intercepted rocket after leaving their apartments to seek refuge in the nearest shelter, located in a Polyclinic, in the Desnyanskyi district of the capital.