The first day of classes at School No. 66.
This is the industrial city of Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine.
All the trappings of back-to-school...
but bubbling just below the surface, tensions are high.
Last week, pro-Russian rebels fighting the government took a major town less than an hour's drive away.
They're threatening this strategic port city and residents are bracing for the rebel advance.
(SOUNDBITE) (Ukrainian) YEAR-11 STUDENT, MARIA MALYAR, SAYING:
"We don't even know what can happen tomorrow. So it is very difficult to plan anything for the future."
(SOUNDBITE) (English) YEAR-11 STUDENT, MYKHAILO SUKHAREV, SAYING:
"We want to say to all the other children of the world that we really want to have a peaceful life, like you have."
Ukraine's Education Ministry says all the schools where military action is underway are closed.
Less than half the schools in Donetsk and Luhansk, where rebels have their strongholds,
