"I had never seen tanks before."
As Ukraine marks four years since the full-scale Russian invasion, the stories of teenagers living through war reveal stolen childhoods and profound pain. In Chernihiv, 14-year-old Kateryna recalls packing an emergency suitcase and sleeping in a basement as tanks rolled through her city. Her birthday was marred by constant Russian bombing, forcing her family to flee for 40 days. She now finds solace and therapy in writing poetry.
Seventeen-year-old Hanna from Zaporizhzhia experienced a missile strike on her building. The trauma pushed her towards volunteering and civic engagement, discovering inspiring people and a renewed sense of purpose. Despite the constant threat of drones and air raids, she finds joy in activities like art exhibitions and educational sessions, even amidst destroyed buildings and memorials.
Sixteen-year-old Veronika endured two years of Russian occupation in Melitopol. Facing food scarcity and the refusal of her family to cooperate with occupation authorities, she continued her studies online. Escaping the occupied territories involved a perilous journey across Russia, witnessing the devastation in Mariupol. She found calm only upon reaching the Latvian border and eventually resettled in Zaporizhzhia, a journey now taking four days.
Eighteen-year-old Liza fled her occupied hometown of Oleshky in the Kherson region after neighbors were killed. After a four-day journey through 20 Russian checkpoints and a harrowing "filtration" process, she and her family started anew in Kyiv. She now studies psychology and works as a cashier, finding safety and freedom in the capital, though the war's impact, including power outages and air raid alerts, remains a constant presence.