From Military.com:
“Scarred By War, Ukrainian Children Carry on After Losing
Parents, Homes and Innocence”
(Children dance at the recovery camp for children and their
mothers affected by the war near Lviv, Ukraine, Wednesday, May 3, 2023. A
generation of Ukrainian children have seen their lives upended by Russia's
invasion of their country. Hundreds of kids have been killed.)
The two children squinted to see through the thick smoke that
hung in the air after a deafening blast shook their small home in Ukraine’s
eastern Donetsk region. The pair, ages 9 and 10, called out for their father.
Only eerie silence followed. Then Olha Hinkina and her brother, Andrii, rushed
to the bomb shelter, as they had been taught. When the booms stopped and the
smoke cleared, they found their father on the porch — motionless and covered in
blood after being struck by a Russian projectile. “Father was killed at seven
in the morning,” said Andrii, who now lives in the safer western city of Lviv,
near the border with Poland. The two siblings join a generation of Ukrainian
children whose lives have been upended by the war. Russia’s full-scale invasion
has subjected them to constant bombardment, uprooted millions from their homes
and turned many into orphans.
Hundreds of kids have been killed. For the survivors, the
wide-ranging trauma is certain to leave psychological scars that will follow
them into adolescence and adulthood. “Even if children fled to a safer area, it
doesn’t mean they forgot everything that happened to them,” said psychologist
Oleksandra Volokhova, who works with children who escaped the violence. At
least 483 children have lost their lives and nearly 1,000 have been wounded,
according to figures from Ukraine’s general prosecutor’s office.
Meanwhile, UNICEF says an estimated 1.5 million Ukrainian
children are at risk of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and
other mental health issues, with potentially lasting effects. Nearly 1,500
Ukrainian children have been orphaned, the National Social Service of Ukraine
said. The largest number of child casualties comes from Donetsk, the epicenter
of many battles, where 462 children have been killed or wounded, according to
Ukrainian officials. That figure does not include casualties from the Russian
occupied city of Mariupol, which is also part of Donetsk province, where
Ukrainian officials have found it difficult to track the dead and wounded.
Before the war tore them apart, the Hinkin family was like
any other living in the village of Torske, which today is just 35 kilometers
(22 miles) from the front. With the death of their father in October, the
children were orphaned. Their mother died years before the war. Six months
later, the siblings appear to be moving past the worst of their ordeal. Police
and volunteers evacuated them to a safer area in western Zakarpattia region,
where they were cared for by government social services and a Ukrainian charity
organization called SOS Children’s Villages, which provided housing and
counseling. Their story became known in and around Torske after police released
a widely seen video that showed their father’s body being removed from the
family home. “We knew the village. We knew where they lived. We knew these
people,” said Nina Poliakova, 52, from the nearby town of Lyman. Although she
fled last year with her family to Lviv, Poliakova continued to follow news from
her native area. Then tragedy struck her life as well when her 16-year-old
foster son died suddenly from a heart condition. She also has a 16-year-old
foster daughter she took in with her husband in 2016 from the occupied town of
Horlivka, where hostilities with Russian-backed separatists began, years before
the 2022 invasion. Mired in grief, Poliakova received a call one day from a
local center supporting children. The caller asked if she would be willing to
meet the Hinkin siblings. At their first meeting, they talked mostly about the
Hinkin family home and the domestic animals they had. One of Andrii’s favorite
activities was to feed the pigs. Poliakova decided to welcome the two children
into her extended family. “We had that tragedy in our family, and then fate
just brought us together,” Poliakova said. “Now many children have been left
alone, without parents. Children need care, love. They seek to be embraced and
comforted.”
Many foundations have emerged to help children overcome the
trauma of war, including a group called Voices of Children, which has processed
around 700 requests from parents looking for help with children suffering from
chronic stress, panic attacks and symptoms of PTSD. The pleas have changed as
the war has progressed, according to a report issued by the charity. During
this past winter, parents sought help after noticing behavioral changes in
their children including apathy, aggression and anxiety, sensitivity to loud
noises and anti-social habits. “A child’s psyche remains more malleable than
that of adults, and with timely and quality support, we understand that a child
can more easily overcome any traumatic events,” said Olena Rozvadovska, the
head of Voices of Children. Recovering from months living so close to combat
lines was difficult for the siblings, Poliakova said. “They were very scared,”
she said. Olha would cry and hug her every time she heard the air-raid sirens.
Andrii was relatively calm during the day but would start screaming in the
middle of the night.
A charity known as Sincere Heart has operated short-term
recovery camps for children and their mothers since the start of the invasion
last year. More than 8,000 people have used the camp services. Poliakova took
her three foster children there. She wanted to help revive the childhood they
lost to the war. At the camp they played with other children who had similar
experiences and took part in art sessions, dance classes and other activities
designed to help children express emotions. Sounds of laughter and play
resonate at the camp full of kids from the war-ravaged regions of Donetsk,
Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and other areas. Many witnessed bombings and
experienced the loss of a parent. Some recovered from war-related wounds. During an art session, the children were
given white T-shirts and instructed to express their feelings through drawing.
Most painted in the blue and yellow of the Ukrainian flag and scribbled the
phrase “glory to Ukraine.” Olha Hinkina painted a heart in blue and yellow. “Children
reflect what lies on the surface,” Rozvadovska said. “They are growing up in an
atmosphere of the colors of our flag, the daily updates from the front line,
the pride for the army that is standing.” Recovery is within reach for the
children, she added. They can grow stronger because they have survived. “They
carry the experience that helped them to survive," she said. "Maybe
it even made them more resilient and adaptive.” When Andrii Hinkin remembers
his hometown, he doesn’t recall the bombs, the smoke or the thunderous
explosions. He remembers it as a beautiful village. Asked what are his biggest
dreams, he responds timidly. “I want to grow up.”
^ The innocent Victims of Russia’s horrible War. ^
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