No victim of war comes out without suffering some kind of loss: a home gutted. A loved one has disappeared. Stolen Life.
Yet no one loses more from war than children – scarred by its ravages for life.
In Ukraine, time is running out to prevent another “lost generation” — the often-used expression not only of young lives taken, but of children who sacrifice their education, passions and friendships to move to the front lines or suffer too deep psychological scars to heal.
The online ticker at the top of a Ukrainian government “Children of War” page flashes a grim and ever-rising figure: Dead: 361. Wounded: 702. Missing: 206. Found: 4,214. Deported: 6,159. Returned: 50.
“Every one of the 5.7 million children in Ukraine has a trauma,” said Murat Sahin, who represents the UN children’s agency, UNICEF, in Ukraine. “I wouldn’t say 10 percent or 50 percent of them are fine—everybody experiences it and it takes years to heal.”
According to aid agencies, more than a third of Ukrainian children – 2.2 million – have been forced to flee their homes, many displaced two or three times as territory is lost. More than half of Ukraine’s children – 3.6 million – may not have a school to return to in September.
However, even as the war enters its sixth month, child advocates say there is time to make meaningful changes in how young people emerge from conflict.
In the maternity wards of Lviv, mothers pray that the fighting will end before their babies are old enough to remember. In eastern Ukraine, activists are searching for children who have disappeared beyond the front line. Across the country, aid workers and Ukrainian officials are scrambling to repair bombed schools and begin psychological support.
“We believe in the resilience of children,” said Ramon Shahzamani, chairman of War Child Holland, a group that focuses on psychological and educational support for children in conflict zones.
“If you can reach the kids as soon as possible and help them deal with what they’ve been through and what they’ve seen,” he said, “then they can deal with their emotions.”
A mother and her daughter in Lisichansk in June as Russian forces bombard the city of Severodonetsk just across the river. Credit… Tyler Hicks/New York Times
This resilience is evident in the way the children have adapted their daily lives – scrawling drawings with crayons and paints on the wall of a damp basement where they are held captive, or inventing a game based on the frequent stops at checkpoints where are subjected to. They mimic the grim reality they witness in war, but also find ways to escape it.
In Donbass, a 13-year-old girl named Daria no longer flinches or runs when a shell falls nearby, so she’s used to the terror that erupts daily.
However, there is a price of unhealed psychological trauma. And the effects are not only mental but also physical.
Children exposed to war are at risk of “toxic stress,” a condition brought on by extreme periods of distress, said Sonya Khush, Ukraine director of Save the Children. The effects are so powerful that they can alter brain structures and organ systems, lasting long into children’s lives.
Offering a hopeful path through war is not just for Ukraine’s children today, Mr. Shahzamani said. This is also for the sake of the country’s future.
The group War Child recently studied children and grandchildren of those who lived through World War II and found that families were still affected by war trauma even two generations later.
“The war is between generations,” he said. “That’s why it’s so important to work on children’s wellbeing and mental health.
Education is critical for psychological support, Ms. Khush said. Schools provide children with social networks among peers, guidance from teachers, and a routine that can provide a sense of normalcy amid pervasive uncertainty.
More than 2,000 of Ukraine’s roughly 17,000 schools have been damaged by the war, while 221 have been destroyed, according to UN statistics. Another 3,500 have been used to shelter or help the seven million Ukrainians who have fled to safer parts of the country. No one knows how many will be open a month from now when the school year starts.
Damaged school in Kramatorsk in July. Credit…Mauricio Lima for The New York Times
Social destruction is even more difficult to repair. Thousands of families were torn apart as brothers and fathers were mobilized or killed and children were forced to flee, leaving grandparents and friends behind. Aid workers have noticed a growing problem with nightmares and aggressive behavior in young children.
Before the invasion, Ukraine had about 91,000 children in institutional orphanages, more than half with disabilities, Mr. Shahin said. It is not reported how much this number has grown since the start of the war.
One of the major unknowns of war is the number of children orphaned or separated from their parents. But in addition to the orphans, Moscow has also forcibly deported tens of thousands of Ukrainians to Russia, according to Ukrainian officials. Many are believed to be children separated from their parents.
Ukrainian activists are now using secret networks in Russian-controlled territories to try to get information about these children – and, if possible, bring them back.
There is hope for orphans, too. A new effort led by the Ukrainian government and UNICEF has encouraged some 21,000 families to register as foster families. Already 1000 of them have been trained and accept children.
“This is just the beginning,” Marina Lazebna, Ukraine’s Minister of Social Policy, said recently. “Sometimes destruction encourages the building of something new, not the restoration of the past.”
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