War in Ukraine: Millions of young people’s war-torn childhoods

A child in the spotlight on every military path. As war raged in his region, he had no face-to-face school. From his 10-year-old height and his fake bulletproof vest and a plastic Kalashnikov, he shows his solidarity with the Ukrainian militia. “When the soldiers see me, it gives them good morale. This war is tough for them.”, the young boy reacts. Many groups of children have taken up the same habit. A child made a mock rocket launcher out of soda bottles, a symbol of a stolen childhood and the shaping of a young mind. Six Months War.

Missile attacks are now ending the lives of these young men. In the city center of Kharkiv (Ukraine), a father explains to his young child, who he holds in his arms, that the shooting was done by the Russians. In the apartment, a young woman is in shock. Her parents’ windows were shattered when the bomb exploded. “Let’s take revenge and make them suffer too”He says he already hates Russians from the height of his 13 years. “I am tired of always being in pain, these pains prevent me from sleeping”, another young man testifies, who survived a missile blast that left him in a coma for three days. Traumas that are imprinted for a lifetime.