Closed shelters: in Zhytomyr children were not allowed into the shelter during the alarm

This was reported by local publication Times ZT.

The event took place on 1 August. The director of the kindergarten, Yulia Orlova, told journalists that the head of the building's condominium association prevented the kindergarten pupils and employees from accessing the shelter. Moreover, the woman demanded money for the use of the shelter.

We have a kindergarten on the 1st floor of a residential building, and the bomb shelter is nearby, behind the lift, so the children do not even need to go outside. We pack up pretty quickly when there is an air raid and head for the shelter. It just so happens that we've only been back in operation for a month, and now the daytime alarms have become more frequent. At first we used the shelter at home, we even made shelter stickers there, brought fire extinguishers, first aid kits, and everything that is necessary for children. But then the head of the condominium took away all these things, and yesterday, when we came down, the shelter was already closed, - said the director of the kindergarten.

According to her, when asked to open the shelter for children, the head of the condominium said that she would not do it for free. As access to the shelter is provided only under a lease agreement with the house and to use the storage you have to pay.

She (head of the condominium - ed.) says that we have to pay money to use this bomb shelter, and we explain to her that we are in the premises of this house absolutely legally, we have a licence, we have a lease agreement, we pay taxes, we pay condominium fees, although we may not pay them, because we are separate. We do not use the entrance, lifts, energy, cleaners, but we pay this meeting, because we understand that we need to pass this corridor past the lift to go down to the shelter. And she stands there, sees that there are 8 small children standing there, and says 'I'm not going to open up to you'."

Zhytomyr city Council reacted to the event. They said that the case with the closed shelter was not unique and that law enforcers would deal with the issue.

However, the story did not end there. Zerkalo N edeli journalists found out that the private kindergarten "Ptichki", which was caught up in this scandal, had already had problems with representatives of the building.

The fact is that the kindergarten is located in a rented flat and does not even have a playground. Members of the condominium raised the question about the expediency of opening a kindergarten in the house and everything ended up in court. According to the court decision, the kindergarten pupils were forbidden to enter the hall, so the owner built a separate entrance to the premises. After that, the day care centre stopped operating due to the start of a full-scale invasion.

When asked how it was possible to get a licence for a kindergarten without a bomb shelter and a walking ground, Svetlana Fomina (chairperson of the condominium) noted that the director of the kindergarten Yulia Orlova (now abroad) and her family were people from the capital. Probably, they once managed to convince the authorities of Zhytomyr region that the premise fully meets the requirements for pre-school institutions," the report says.

At the same time, a prerequisite for the opening of an educational institution is a shelter, equipped independently, or extraneous premises on contractual basis. Kindergarten does not have such an agreement.

We will remind, in Kiev on the night of 1 June killed two women and a child who could not get into the shel ter - it was closed. After that, Ukraine started checking all shelters.