Three years of life – three years of war

Three-year-old Yehor is the same age as Ukraine’s full-scale war. He was born in Mariupol, but he and his parents fled after the bombings started, and just in time too – a few months later the city was destroyed and several thousand killed.

As Yehor celebrated his third birthday in January his mother Yevheniia reflected on her mixed emotions.

“We are celebrating my son’s birthday and it fills me with boundless joy,” she said. “But at the same time, knowing that he is three years old and that the full-scale war in Ukraine has been going on for just as long, I feel a deep sadness.”

For the first few months of the war, the family stayed with friends in Dnipro, often waking up at night to the sound of air raid sirens and shelling. Yevheniia would wrap her baby in a blanket and head for the basement to keep him safe.

Exhausted from the constant threat, Yehor and his family moved to Kyiv seeking greater safety.

The family arrived in Ukraine’s capital with only one suitcase. 

“It couldn’t possibly contain our entire life before the war,” Yevheniia said. “Yehor is our first child and we had prepared so much for his arrival. We bought a cot, a pram, clothes, toys – everything we needed. But it was all left behind in Mariupol.”

Even in Kyiv, Yehor could not escape the constant air raid sirens.

Yevheniia always took him to a shelter in the metro. This protected them from the shelling but took a heavy physical and emotional toll.

So the family moved again.

“This is our fourth move with Yehor,” Yevheniia said. “Every time we think we’ve found a safer place, the shelling starts again.”

In their new home, Yehor found a whiskered friend – a cat named Franko, rescued by Yevheniia as an abandoned kitten on the street.

“I think the war has robbed the children of a real childhood,” Yevheniia said, as she lit a candle on Yehor’s birthday cake, decorated with the number three.

“Every time I think about it, I want to cry. It’s hard to believe that this is possible in the 21st century. Whatever I can do to compensate for what the war has taken from my son, I try.”

Born into conflict

Katya is just three years old. Yet in this short time, the playful and cheerful little girl has already lived through aerial bombings, evacuation and separation from her father. Her life has been one of relentless trauma.

“Parents often say that small children do not understand what war and shelling mean,” said Alyona, Katya’s mother. “But that is not true.”

Alyona spent the first month of the war cuddling her child in the darkness of a damp basement, terrified of the deafening explosions outside.

“I will never forget the expression in Katya’s eyes,” Alyona said. “She seemed frozen – she understood that something unimaginably terrible was happening.”

Displacement 

Alyona was forced to flee the country with her daughter, leaving Katya’s father behind. But Katya missed her father too much, and they soon returned to the danger of Ukraine.

The family now lives in central Balakliia. The local kindergarten is closed, but Alyona takes her daughter to UNICEF-organised classes.

“She has changed so much since we returned home,” she said. “She communicates more with other children now, because it’s easier for her to understand them here. She’s made her first friends, and she immediately started speaking more at home.”

However, life for the family remains difficult. Air raid sirens are a daily reality. Alyona cannot go to work, as she has no one to leave her daughter with. But she tries to stay positive.

“We survived terrifying shelling, we survived emigration and now we are finally home,” she said. “I cannot allow myself to fall apart because Katya will feel it too. So we hope for the best. I believe the war will end.”

Andrii’s guide to surviving bombs

Andrii knows more about war than any ten year old should.

“It’s scary when a shell whistles,” he said. “That’s when you have to drop to the ground quickly. When a drone is coming, you have to run in a zigzag – that way, it has less chance of hitting you.”

Andrii’s father, who passed away last winter in a car accident, helped teach him the rules of staying safe under fire.

“I really don’t like living without Dad,” he said. “But Mum does everything for me – she tries to make sure I’m okay. And I try to support her in return.”

Andrii holds onto his dreams for a better future, that he can help shape for himself and Ukraine.

“I would like to stay in Kherson or move to Kharkiv when I grow up,” he said. “These are two beautiful cities that I love deeply. Before the war, the centre of Kherson was so lovely – so many people walking, cafés, lanterns, lights. I want it to be like that again.”