Threats to schools a ‘hybrid invasion’
KYIV • “How much explosives do you think can fit in this one?” asked a Ukrainian bomb disposal expert, holding up a blue-and-yellow owl mascot in front of astonished pupils attending emergency drills at their school in Kyiv on Thursday.
Law enforcers organized the training after a series of hoax bomb alerts this year forced the evacuation of schools in the capital Kyiv, and other cities, including Kharkiv, Lviv and Zaporizhzhia.
Kyiv blames them on Russia already waging a hybrid war against its former Soviet satellite, while also threatening full-blown invasion by amassing more than 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border.
“The purpose of Russian special services is obvious — to put additional pressure on Ukraine, sow anxiety and panic among the public,” said Ukraine’s Security Service, adding it had recorded more than 300 bomb threats so far this year, compared to 1,100 for the whole of 2021.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not respond to a request for comment.
Russian officials have blamed Ukraine for a similar series of bomb hoaxes that have forced Russian schools, shopping centres and kindergartens to evacuate tens of thousands of people. After a pause, the hoax alerts in Russia resumed this month as tensions between Moscow and Kyiv rose.
As the United States leads international talks with Moscow aimed at defusing the latest escalation of Eastwest tensions, the risk of an open Russian military intervention may not be the most pressing one for Ukraine.
Ukraine’s Center of Defense Strategies think-tank said the main threat was “a hybrid invasion,” including more cyber attacks, disinformation, as well as bomb threats at schools, subway systems, administrative offices and elsewhere.
“It’s always very sensitive when it’s about children. It creates a lot of tension and stress for the parents, for the whole society,” said Alina Frolova, a deputy head of the think-tank and a former deputy defence minister of Ukraine.
“It ties up law enforcement services. It’s easier to make a mistake when the constant tension makes everyone tired. It is to destabilize and demoralize the population.”
In Kyiv, holding emergency bomb drills for pupils serves as a stark reminder of the peculiar state Ukraine is in, neither at war nor at peace.
The mascot owl can hold a kilogram of explosives, enough to kill anyone within five metres and wound those up to 15 metres away, the Ukrainian policeman, Oleksandr Shcherbin, told the teenagers.
He showed the class video clips of explosions as well as explosive devices resembling a box of chocolates and a mobile phone case.
“It’s scary,” said a 13-yearold student who gave her name as Zhenya.