Katya Soldak
Forbes
December 20, 2024
Russia’s war on Ukraine has taken a heavy psychological toll on the country’s children, with 43% exhibiting psychosocial distress and symptoms of anxiety and fear, according to research by Save The Children. This is especially true for frontline cities and towns like Kharkiv.
Mariyka Kramska, now nine years old, was seven when Russia first bombarded her hometown of Kharkiv, where she lived with her mother, father, and an older brother. The family never left Kharkiv, said her mother, Olena Kramska, 45, because her elderly parents required medical help and Mariyka’s father was prohibited from leaving the country since he was conscription-age. The family remains in Kharkiv despite the war, living through constant bombing, deafening explosions, and other realities of war. As a result, Mariyka started experiencing severe panic attacks, stuttering, insomnia, sleepwalking, and tremors. They turned to therapy, which, thankfully, was available free of charge at Kinder Velt Center, a resource launched by an organization that distributes Jewish educational materials. With the help of psychologists, the symptoms, luckily, subsided. But in children living through the war, the impact stays and will never go away, says therapist Natalia Beliaeva.
Some children have directly experienced violence, loss, injury, and tragedy. Some face regular attacks on their cities, forced to seek shelter from drones and missiles, loud explosions. These conditions have taken a heavy toll on children’s mental health, with some developing symptoms such as speech problems and nervous ticks, while others have terrible nightmares and scream in their sleep. Three in four children in Ukraine are living in constant fear, a mental health crisis that is escalating with the recent surge in Russian missile and drone attacks.
Russia’s war on Ukraine “has caused massive displacement, economic damage, and human suffering in the country,” concluded Education and Children’s Wellbeing in Wartime Ukraine report by the aid organization Save the Children, based on research conducted between 2023 and 2024. Of the 32,100 civilian casualties recorded by the United Nations, 1,800 of those killed or injured were children. The war has also precipitated the most significant civilian displacement in Europe since World War II, with nearly one-third of Ukraine’s population forced to flee their homes in 2022. But many families returned after about a year of living abroad. Returning to cities like Kharkiv has re-traumatized children due to near constant aerial bombardments, drone attacks, and artillery fire, particularly near the front lines. “Civilian infrastructure, including schools, water, and power stations, have been deliberately targeted,” said the report.
Kharkiv is especially vulnerable to Russian aggression due to its proximity to the border (only 19 miles) and lack of effective air defenses to intercept missiles and drones. As the city, with a
current estimated population of 1.4 million, lives under constant threat, residents’ mental health continues to suffer.
To offset the devastating impact, various organizations, big and small, have created opportunities for families to get help. Litokryl, a project by Rescue Now, an aid initiative launched in Kharkiv, provides psychological assistance to children, adolescents, and their parents. Litokryl has helped more than six thousand Ukrainian children cope with PTSD symptoms and now has eight locations throughout Ukraine.
With private initiatives, like Kinder Velt and Litokryl, and efforts by international charities, like Depaul Ukraine, children in Kharkiv have several options for no-cost therapy. However, therapy can’t heal all the devastating effects of the insecurity and stress of living in a war zone, where bombing and shelling can strike civilian areas at any time. Caseworkers cited in the Save the Children report have observed at least five children between eight and 16 years old who live in Kharkiv, who have developed grey hair, a phenomenon attributed by the children’s caregivers and doctors to the extreme stress of the war.
“The cases we’re managing are becoming more severe and a lot harder to support,” Abeer Jawad, Save the Children’s Case Management Technical Advisor in Ukraine, said in the report. “We’re seeing children who have been evacuated from the frontline areas and separated from their parents, children who have stepped on landmines and now have life-changing injuries, children who have lived in occupied areas, children who have witnessed their parents’ deaths – the list is horrifying and endless.”
Katya Soldak is a New-York-based journalist and the editorial director of Forbes Media’s international editions. Originally from Kharkiv, Ukraine, Katya is the director of the documentary The Long Breakup and the author of the memoir-essay This Is How Propaganda Works, about growing up in the Soviet Union. Forbes reporters follow company ethical guidelines that ensure the highest quality.