13 pictures that show just how much Sunderland pupils care for Ukraine

With the Russian invasion of Ukraine now entering its fourth week, thousands of people across Wearside have shown their support through raising funds and donating items to help refugee families fleeing the war-torn country.

With towns and cities besieged under a bombardment of Russian missile strikes, the United Nations have confirmed more than three million people have fled Ukraine with almost two million refugees crossing the border into Poland and thousands more seeking sanctuary across Europe.

With schools, nurseries and even a maternity hospital failing to escape Russian strikes, nowhere has the pain of the Ukrainian people been more keenly felt than across Sunderland and Durham schools.

As Year 6 pupil Izabella Wiseman, 10, at Ribbon Academy said: “They’ve been bombing schools and it really makes you think that if we were in Ukraine that would have been us.”

After seeing the harrowing images on TV, children in schools have been hosting Ukraine Days to raise both money and collect donated items. Schools have been decorated in Ukrainian flags displaying messages of support, with children also wearing blue and yellow clothes, baking cakes in Ukrainian colours and taking part in a range of sponsored events.

The University of Sunderland’s School of Medicine have also been collecting medical supplies to help refugee families and those people still living in Ukraine.

Here are a selection of photographs which capture the caring spirit of our region’s children and students.

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