{"id":93052,"date":"2024-01-24T22:42:08","date_gmt":"2024-01-24T22:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.estaql.com\/a-lost-childhood-inside-the-ukrainian-school-shut-by-war-where-childrens-drawings-of-the-conflict-line-the-walls-world-news\/"},"modified":"2024-01-24T22:42:08","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T22:42:08","slug":"a-lost-childhood-inside-the-ukrainian-school-shut-by-war-where-childrens-drawings-of-the-conflict-line-the-walls-world-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/estaql.com\/seo\/a-lost-childhood-inside-the-ukrainian-school-shut-by-war-where-childrens-drawings-of-the-conflict-line-the-walls-world-news\/","title":{"rendered":"A lost childhood: Inside the Ukrainian school shut by war where children’s drawings of the conflict line the walls | World News"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A lost childhood: Inside the Ukrainian school shut by war where children’s drawings of the conflict line the walls | World News<\/h2>\n
A lost childhood: Inside the Ukrainian school shut by war where children’s drawings of the conflict line the walls | World News<\/p>\n
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Invading Russian troops – arms up, faces scared – drown in a river in the frontline city of Kherson as a Ukrainian soldier watches on, rifle raised.<\/p>\n
The image, drawn by a child, is among a line of pictures, including of jets, tanks and corpses, that illustrates Ukraine’s<\/strong> lost childhood after almost two years of full-scale war.<\/p>\n
They hang on a wall inside a school – shut for normal lessons – where a charity offers support to the dwindling number of children in Kherson whose parents have yet to flee.<\/p>\n
One six-year-old boy, looking at the sketches, says his favourite is of a large Ukrainian tank.<\/p>\n
Ukraine war latest: Plane ‘downed in act of terrorism’<\/strong><\/p>\n
“I like tanks,” says Ivan Rozsoha, clutching the hand of his grandmother, who brings him to the school for speech therapy.<\/p>\n
The little boy, dressed in a puffy winter coat and a woolly hat, says it is scary when Russian<\/strong> troops launch artillery, drone and missile strikes against his city – a daily occurrence.<\/p>\n
“When rockets fall, I try to hide my head under my toys,” Ivan says, gesturing with his hands.<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n Image:<\/span> \n In one image, drawn by a child, a Ukrainian soldier watches on as Russian soldiers marked with the “Z” that has become a symbol of its invasion drown in the water below \n <\/span> \n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
He wants to become a soldier when he grows up and thinks Russia is bad, saying: “They are destroying Ukraine and I know how to destroy them.”<\/p>\n
Zina Rozsoha, 67, his grandmother, appears distressed to hear such heavy thoughts from a child. Asked how she feels, she just says: “Tears.”<\/p>\n
The speech therapy takes place in a classroom with more than a dozen other children, aged around four to seven, sitting at tables, clutching crayons and coloured pencils.<\/p>\n
Anastasia Andryushchenko, a therapist, encourages them to express themselves through art, by drawing sad and happy faces, and then to explain why they have chosen these expressions.<\/p>\n
She says a growing number of children in Kherson struggle with speech. Some no longer talk at all, terrorised by the fighting and with little chance to socialise.<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n Image:<\/span> \n In another drawing, a tractor pulls away a Russian tank, in what has become a real-life symbol of Ukraine’s resistance to the invasion \n <\/span> \n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
“War has affected them profoundly in terms of their mental health,” the therapist says.<\/p>\n
She adds: “In the last lesson, we were drawing Christmas trees with the children.<\/p>\n
“Everyone had to draw a Christmas tree from their imagination. A lot of children drew a Christmas tree with explosions, with grenades. There was even a nuclear Christmas tree, which soldiers were defending.”<\/p>\n
Loss of innocence<\/strong><\/p>\n
The loss of innocence is hardly surprising given everything that Ukraine’s children have endured since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022.<\/p>\n
Russian troops occupied Kherson, in southern Ukraine, from the early days of the war. Ukrainian forces managed to push them out just over eight months later.<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n Image:<\/span> \n Kherson’s regional state administration building in the city centre \n <\/span> \n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
However, efforts to surge deeper into Russian-held territory have faltered and the frontline remains on the eastern side of the Dnipro river that marks the southern edge of the city.<\/p>\n
Air raid sirens and artillery are the soundtrack for the few thousand children who still live in Kherson – their parents unwilling or unable to leave.<\/p>\n
Schools and nurseries are shut, so all lessons take place online at home – whenever there is power and an internet connection.<\/p>\n
In a small, single-storey house on a modest residential street, six-year-old Yeva Lykhenko plays alone with her doll house in her bedroom – it is too dangerous to play outside.<\/p>\n
The fair-haired girl with a shy smile does not like online learning and rarely has the chance to mix with other children.<\/p>\n
“She does not have a childhood. They just took it away,” says her mother, Emma Lykhenko, 37.<\/p>\n
Read more from Sky News: At least 18 killed as Russia carries out air strikes Two high-value Russian planes ‘shot down’, Ukraine claims<\/strong><\/p>\n
At night, Yeva is often kept awake by explosions.<\/p>\n
“When it is very loud, I always come to her and say: ‘Do not be afraid, mummy is with you’,” the mother says.<\/p>\n
“I try not to show I am worried or nervous, but inside I am just praying.”<\/p>\n
The mother says she does not want to move away, in part because of the cost but also because there is no guarantee that other cities would be completely safe.<\/p>\n
“I am telling myself all the time: just a little bit longer and victory will happen,” she adds.<\/p>\n
Rare access to the most dangerous part of Kherson<\/strong><\/p>\n
Sky News has been given rare access to an island that lies between the two banks of the Dnipro river.<\/p>\n
It is effectively a dividing line between Ukrainian and Russian troops, though further along some Ukrainian forces have made it across to the east bank amid fierce fighting.<\/p>\n
The island is the most dangerous part of Kherson. Yet a few families, with young children, still live here as well.<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n Image:<\/span> \n Concrete apartment blocks frame an empty playground in a residential section of an island in the Dnipro \n <\/span> \n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
We approach some dreary-looking, concrete apartment blocks that frame an empty playground of rusty climbing frames and swings in a residential section of the island.<\/p>\n
On the ninth floor of one of the buildings, a young couple live with their two small daughters, Varvara, two, and Arina, who is just 18 months old.<\/p>\n
Their apartment is tiny, filled with blankets and cushions to keep the family warm whenever the power cuts off – it has just come back on when we meet them after a three-week outage following an attack on a local energy facility.<\/p>\n
The temperature outside is freezing.<\/p>\n
The mother, Anastasia Tatarinova, who looks to be in her early 20s, says life is hard and the threat from Russian forces is growing.<\/p>\n
“There are very huge explosions,” she says, sitting on a sofa and cuddling her youngest child on her lap.<\/p>\n
“Yesterday there was a drone flying overhead. It is really worrying. All the time we are stressed.”<\/p>\n
She was pregnant with Arina when the full-scale invasion started. The little girl, her hair pulled into a mini ponytail on the top of her head, has known nothing but war.<\/p>\n
“She heard bombing from my tummy so has never seen normal life,” Ms Tatarinova says.<\/p>\n
“We are afraid to play on the playground so we are staying home. It is very dangerous outside because there is shelling all the time.”<\/p>\n
Asked whether the family will leave if the situation worsens, she says: “If it continues like that, of course, why would we stay here? We will have no choice then.”<\/p>\n
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Football ‘too important’ to surrender<\/strong><\/p>\n
Despite the danger, some children back towards the centre of Kherson are still clinging to one passion – football.<\/p>\n
Boys take aim towards a goal inside a well-used sports hall in a metal hanger with a curved roof, tucked in between residential blocks and deserted market stalls.<\/p>\n
A coach blows a whistle as the children race around, kicking footballs.<\/p>\n
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<\/div>\n Image:<\/span> \n Despite the danger, some children back towards the centre of Kherson are still clinging to one passion – football \n <\/span> \n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
Sitting in a changing room pulling up his sports socks, 12-year-old Rostislav Semenyuk says his dream is “to become a second Lionel Messi”.<\/p>\n
He would also like to be a politician when he grows up.<\/p>\n
The boy says he can barely remember what life was like before the war.<\/p>\n
Asked if he can think of anything that he misses, he says: “More games – football games. There are fewer matches now.”<\/p>\n
The head football coach says his boys and girls – the girls are due to train the next day – are not able to play matches in the Kherson region because it is too risky.<\/p>\n
Instead, they travel to areas further away from the frontline to take on other teams.<\/p>\n
Vyachslav Rol says the opportunity to train is “very important”.<\/p>\n
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