Children witnessed a burned out bus and their playground hit by a rocket shell as they returned to school in Eastern Ukraine on Wednesday.
In Donetsk, two almost simultaneous attacks left 10 people dead and several more injured. None of them were children.
Footage showed pupils being led to the school basement to hide from the violence and then rushed home by parents when it was safe.
Children had returned to classrooms a month later than the rest of the country due to the ongoing violence in the region.
“We could hear the shelling but what can we do about it? It’s life. We need to carry on. We go on living and surviving. It will be all fine,” said one mother.
Kiev blasted eastern separatist leaders for letting classes restart even now. Violence has escalated in recent days in Donetsk despite last month’s truce agreements.
Pro-Russian rebels say they’re close to taking Donetsk airport, which would be a strategic victory for the separatists.
