It's one of the most moving scenes you could imagine.
Eight final-year high school students in Ukraine's second-largest city Kharkiv are rehearsing a dance for a graduation party that may never happen.
Their teachers are watching on as they break into choreographed moves to the soundtrack of Azerbaijani pop singer Safura's hit Drip Drop.
Blue and yellow hair ribbons twirl through the air as the boys pick up the girls and spin them around.
These students represent just a fraction of their class. They have come together to record a video of themselves for their schoolmates who can't be here.
Many of their peers have fled the dangers of Kharkiv to complete their final year of school in safer parts of the country or abroad.
A graduation dance is a tradition in Ukrainian schools.
"It happens on the last day of the school year," 17-year-old student Misha Maslov tells the ABC.
"We give a concert, the 11th grade dances, and then we all go celebrating with our relatives and other pupils.
"For now, we have permission from government to do this, but we can't know for sure."
The students are dancing on the asphalt in the grounds outside their classrooms.
Inside the school is off-limits. All educational facilities in Kharkiv have been closed since the full-scale invasion in February last year.
Kharkiv Secondary School No.26 has been school for twin brothers Misha and Maksym Maslov for 11 years.
The brothers and their classmates have been doing their final-year exams from home due to the threat of Russian missiles. Their school has already been struck once.
"There was a whole rocket or a bomb in our schoolyard. It fell here," Maksym says.
"I think it's unforgivable," Misha says.
"It shouldn't be happening. It's unhuman. People live here. There are no war objects here, and it's a totally peaceful place."
Study finds Russia deliberately targeting schools in Kharkiv
There's a strong feeling in Kharkiv that schools and other educational facilities have been deliberately targeted by Russian missiles as a way of eroding Ukrainian culture and identity.
When you look at the numbers, it's hard to argue against this theory.
"Six-hundred-and-thirty-four educational institutions have been destroyed or damaged throughout the network," says Oleksiy Litvinov, the director of the Kharkiv Department of Science and Education.
"Among them, almost the majority are institutions of general secondary education, that is, schools. To date, the number of them destroyed and damaged in the entire region is almost 500."
"Universities, academies, schools, institutes and kindergartens, 44 per cent of these are damaged or destroyed. Among them, 74 were destroyed in total."
The Eyes on Russia project at the Centre for Information Resilience has been mapping the attacks on Kharkiv's educational facilities since February last year.
The project's deputy lead Belén Carrasco Rodriguez told the ABC their evidence shows that Kharkiv schools have been deliberately targeted.
"In July 2022, we saw that although the front line had shifted from Kharkiv there was an increase in the shelling of educational facilities in Kharkiv City," she says.
"An analysis of the surroundings of these educational facilities suggested that these were targeted attacks and not a by-product of indiscriminate shelling."
Ms Carrasco Rodriguez says directly targeting schools could constitute a war crime.
"A lot of children have lost their access to education, especially in frontline areas, and others have had to shift to online education or move to other schools," she says.
"The targeting of schools is a clear breach of Russia's obligations under the Geneva Convention."
Kharkiv has long been a centre of education for local and foreign students.
Oleksiy Litvinov finds the attacks on Kharkiv's educational institutions to be particularly galling given how many Russians have received an education in the city.
"Since the early Soviet times, it has always been a student town," he says.
"We had the largest number of universities, institutes and academies during the independence of Ukraine. The largest contingent of student youth.
"It is painful and bitter for us, given the fact that many neighbours [Russians] studied in Kharkiv, came here for scientific conferences, symposiums and other events."
Hope remains for the students of Kharkiv
It's been a tough 15 months for the students of Kharkiv Secondary School No.26.
Viktoria Kulish, 17, says adjusting to online schooling in a warzone was incredibly hard.
"At the start of the war, we were in a bomb shelter," she says.
"In the first days we worked on Zoom. It was difficult, few people joined the meeting. I tried to keep studying because life does not stand still.
"When there were air alarms, we worried about each other."
Despite all they have been through, the class of 2023 has high hopes for the future.
"I want to apply to university to become a paediatrician to treat children in Ukraine," Viktoria says.
Maksym wants to become a computer programmer, his brother Misha is hoping to work as a translator.
"I already know four languages and I want to learn a fifth. It will be Chinese," he says.
"I want to let the world know about our problems, about everything that is happening here."
And there's another priority that dominates their thinking as they finish up their final-year exams.
"I hope the war ends," Misha says.
"Yeah, me too," Maksym says, finishing his brother's sentence.
"And that there will be peace in the world and in our country."
