Photo: Kharkiv Metro Authority

Some schoolchildren in Kharkiv, a major city in eastern Ukraine subjected to constant Russian shelling, will attend offline classes in the subway several times a week, Kharkiv mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

The classes will be organised in 60 safe subway premises, with 1,003 children able to attend.

"However, there are still a few more days until the first of September, so the work in this direction continues," Mr Terekhov posted on social media.

In Ukraine, the school year begins on 1 September.

The government has decided to resume classes in mixed mode, meaning schoolchildren will study offline only when the security situation due to Russia’s full-scale invasion allows.

In Kyiv, parents of 240,000 schoolchildren agreed on offline studying, 2.5 times more than last year.

Overall, 80 to 85 percent of Ukrainian schools will start the new school year in full-time or mixed format, according to the education ministry.