Kherson's kids have missed almost four years of school because they have been living in isolation or underground to avoid drones. Child...
Kherson's kids have missed almost four years of school because they have been living in isolation or underground to avoid drones.
Children are running between plastic chairs in an underground shelter in Kherson, which is possibly the most dangerous city in Ukraine. Outside, mortars, artillery, and drones fly back and forth over the Dnipro River, which separates the city from Russian troops.
This improvised underground play area is one of the few safe areas for kids to hang out with each other. The war may not be happening for a few hours. When the explosions reach too close, the professors at the center applaud louder or turn up the music to drown away the sound.
This month, as students all around Ukraine went back to school, one in three of them was having their fourth year of education disrupted. In places like Kherson, where schools have been devastated in attacks, kids have to do most of their schoolwork online.
But kids are lagging behind in school and in their growth because they grew up alone at home or in bomb shelters. They are also getting more and more angry.
Valentina*, 37, one of the moms who uses the center, says, "My son asks me why he can't go out. He says he could be killed at home or outside; there's no difference."
There is a considerable risk of death or injury for all citizens. Russia has been using drones in a planned campaign in Kherson to scare people, which they call the "human safari." This could be a war crime. A drone strike killed a one-year-old boy in the courtyard of a residential building in the Kherson region in July.
The UN says that civilian deaths have risen in recent months, with most of them being caused by Russian attacks with long-range explosive weapons in inhabited areas and short-range drones along the battle lines.
Since the commencement of full-scale war in 2022, more than 3,000 children have been killed or hurt throughout Ukraine as a whole. That's nearly 150 classes of kids.
Families have to spend a lot of time underground or inside because of these perils, always weighing the risks of every errand against the risk of death. Teachers claim that kids are having a hard time making friends and speaking up because they can't go outside, and some haven't even learnt to read yet.
According to Narmina Strishenets, a conflict adviser with the UK charity Save the Children, "Children are no longer focused on play, socializing, and passions; they are focused on staying alive."
Strishenets states, "Many are now one or two years behind in core subjects." "Childhood is under attack, and they are losing hope."
The underground play center is in a secret place in a residential part of Kherson. It's one of the few places where kids may get one-on-one help from teachers and psychologists. Oleh Turchynskyi, the head of a local housing organization, set it up last year.
"We made this basement into a shelter in 2023 because attacks on the city were getting worse," explains the 60-year-old. "I realized this would be a great place for them when I saw how well the kids did down here because they could spend time together."
It's a place for kids from one year old to their late teens to meet up during the week. The older kids watch TV or talk to pals, while the smaller kids sing, draw, and play games.
Psychologists try to help the kids with their worry and trouble sleeping, as well as illnesses like autism, which they say can be tougher to deal with because of the conflict.
Turchynskyi said that one of the kids at the center had to live in a cellar for months during the occupation, which made him or her develop diabetes. At first, the youngster could only say yes or no when he went to the play center. But after working with a psychologist there, he is starting to feel better about himself again. A drone crashed into Turchynskyi's 12th-floor apartment kitchen last month when his wife was cooking dinner. He hurt his head and body, and his wife is still in the hospital in critical condition, with shrapnel all over her body.
Turchynskyi recounts, "I remember how she screamed every day and night. It was so loud and horrible." He says he has stayed in Kherson because he feels responsible for the kids and the community. "I can't just leave these people alone."
Valentina adds that a drone attack also hit her home earlier this year. She and her son Klav, who is 15, now live with a friend. She doesn't use lights at night to prevent attracting drones, and there is often no electricity or internet.
But her biggest fear is that she has tried too hard to protect her son from her own worries. He hardly reacts to the sound of explosions today.
Valentina says, "Every day life here gets worse." "I used to drive to the store, but now I ride my bike because the drones are so loud that I can hear them when I need to run."