A lost childhood: Inside the Ukrainian school shut by war where children’s drawings of the conflict line the walls
Invading Russian troops – arms up, faces scared – drown in a river in the frontline city of Kherson as a Ukrainian soldier watches on, rifle raised.
The image, drawn by a child, is among a line of pictures, including of jets, tanks and corpses, that illustrates Ukraine’s lost childhood after almost two years of full-scale war.
They hang on a wall inside a school – shut for normal lessons – where a charity offers support to the dwindling number of children in Kherson whose parents have yet to flee.
One six-year-old boy, looking at the sketches, says his favourite is of a large Ukrainian tank.
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“I like tanks,” says Ivan Rozsoha, clutching the hand of his grandmother, who brings him to the school for speech therapy.
The little boy, dressed in a puffy winter coat and a woolly hat, says it is scary when Russian troops launch artillery, drone and missile strikes against his city – a daily occurrence.
“When rockets fall, I try to hide my head under my toys,” Ivan says, gesturing with his hands.
In one image, drawn by a child, a Ukrainian soldier watches on as Russian soldiers marked with the “Z” that has become a symbol of its invasion drown in the water below
He wants to become a soldier when he grows up and thinks Russia is bad, saying: “They are destroying Ukraine and I know how to destroy them.”
Zina Rozsoha, 67, his grandmother, appears distressed to hear such heavy thoughts from a child. Asked how she feels, she just says: “Tears.”
The speech therapy takes place in a classroom with more than a dozen other children, aged around four to seven, sitting at tables, clutching crayons and coloured pencils.
Anastasia Andryushchenko, a therapist, encourages them to express themselves through art, by drawing sad and happy faces, and then to explain why they have chosen these expressions.
She says a growing number of children in Kherson struggle with speech. Some no longer talk at all, terrorised by the fighting and with little chance to socialise.
In another drawing, a tractor pulls away a Russian tank, in what has become a real-life symbol of Ukraine’s resistance to the invasion
“War has affected them profoundly in terms of their mental health,” the therapist says.
She adds: “In the last lesson, we were drawing Christmas trees with the children.
“Everyone had to draw a Christmas tree from their imagination. A lot of children drew a Christmas tree with explosions, with grenades. There was even a nuclear Christmas tree, which soldiers were defending.”
Loss of innocence
The loss of innocence is hardly surprising given everything that Ukraine’s children have endured since Russia launched its full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022.
Russian troops occupied Kherson, in southern Ukraine, from the early days of the war. Ukrainian forces managed to push them out just over eight months later.
Kherson’s regional state administration building in the city centre
However, efforts to surge deeper into Russian-held territory have faltered and the frontline remains on the eastern side of the Dnipro river that marks the southern edge of the city.
Air raid sirens and artillery are the soundtrack for the few thousand children who still live in Kherson – their parents unwilling or unable to leave.
Schools and nurseries are shut, so all lessons take place online at home – whenever there is power and an internet connection.
In a small, single-storey house on a modest residential street, six-year-old Yeva Lykhenko plays alone with her doll house in her bedroom – it is too dangerous to play outside.
The fair-haired girl with a shy smile does not like online learning and rarely has the chance to mix with other children.
“She does not have a childhood. They just took it away,” says her mother, Emma Lykhenko, 37.
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At night, Yeva is often kept awake by explosions.
“When it is very loud, I always come to her and say: ‘Do not be afraid, mummy is with you’,” the mother says.
“I try not to show I am worried or nervous, but inside I am just praying.”
The mother says she does not want to move away, in part because of the cost but also because there is no guarantee that other cities would be completely safe.
“I am telling myself all the time: just a little bit longer and victory will happen,” she adds.
Rare access to the most dangerous part of Kherson
Sky News has been given rare access to an island that lies between the two banks of the Dnipro river.
It is effectively a dividing line between Ukrainian and Russian troops, though further along some Ukrainian forces have made it across to the east bank amid fierce fighting.
The island is the most dangerous part of Kherson. Yet a few families, with young children, still live here as well.
Concrete apartment blocks frame an empty playground in a residential section of an island in the Dnipro
We approach some dreary-looking, concrete apartment blocks that frame an empty playground of rusty climbing frames and swings in a residential section of the island.
On the ninth floor of one of the buildings, a young couple live with their two small daughters, Varvara, two, and Arina, who is just 18 months old.
Their apartment is tiny, filled with blankets and cushions to keep the family warm whenever the power cuts off – it has just come back on when we meet them after a three-week outage following an attack on a local energy facility.
The temperature outside is freezing.
The mother, Anastasia Tatarinova, who looks to be in her early 20s, says life is hard and the threat from Russian forces is growing.
Anastasia Tatarinova and Arina
“There are very huge explosions,” she says, sitting on a sofa and cuddling her youngest child on her lap.
“Yesterday there was a drone flying overhead. It is really worrying. All the time we are stressed.”
She was pregnant with Arina when the full-scale invasion started. The little girl, her hair pulled into a mini ponytail on the top of her head, has known nothing but war.
“She heard bombing from my tummy so has never seen normal life,” Ms Tatarinova says.
“We are afraid to play on the playground so we are staying home. It is very dangerous outside because there is shelling all the time.”
Asked whether the family will leave if the situation worsens, she says: “If it continues like that, of course, why would we stay here? We will have no choice then.”
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Football ‘too important’ to surrender
Despite the danger, some children back towards the centre of Kherson are still clinging to one passion – football.
Boys take aim towards a goal inside a well-used sports hall in a metal hanger with a curved roof, tucked in between residential blocks and deserted market stalls.
A coach blows a whistle as the children race around, kicking footballs.
Despite the danger, some children back towards the centre of Kherson are still clinging to one passion – football
Sitting in a changing room pulling up his sports socks, 12-year-old Rostislav Semenyuk says his dream is “to become a second Lionel Messi”.
He would also like to be a politician when he grows up.
The boy says he can barely remember what life was like before the war.
Asked if he can think of anything that he misses, he says: “More games – football games. There are fewer matches now.”
The head football coach says his boys and girls – the girls are due to train the next day – are not able to play matches in the Kherson region because it is too risky.
Instead, they travel to areas further away from the frontline to take on other teams.
Vyachslav Rol says the opportunity to train is “very important”.
Kyrylo Tsyvilskiy
“Children are suffering from the war so they need to distract themselves,” the coach says.
“The only opportunity for them to communicate with each other is at our training.”
A second boy, in a maroon-coloured kit, says football is his life.
“I love to train,” says Kyrylo Tsyvilskiy, 12, taking a brief pause to chat.
“My dream is I want my friends to come back, for the war to be over and for all these Russians never to exist.”
Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff has met Vladimir Putin for talks in Russia – as the US president called on Moscow to “get moving” with ending the war in Ukraine.
Mr Witkoff, who has been pressing the Kremlin to accept a truce, visited Mr Putin in St Petersburg after earlier meeting the Russian leader’s international co-operation envoy Kirill Dmitriev.
Mr Putin was shown on state TV greeting Mr Witkoff at the city’s presidential library at the start of the latest discussions about the search for a peace deal on Ukraine.
Before Friday’s meeting, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov played down expectations of a breakthrough and told state media the visit would not be “momentous”.
Follow the latest updates on the war in Ukraine
However, Sky News Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett said he believes the meeting – Mr Witkoff’s third with Mr Putin this year – is significant as a sign of the Trump administration’s “increasing frustration at the lack of progress on peace talks”.
Earlier on Friday, Mr Trump issued his latest social media statement on trying to end the war, writing on Truth Social: “Russia has to get moving. Too many people ere [sic] DYING, thousands a week, in a terrible and senseless war – A war that should have never happened, and wouldn’t have happened, if I were President!!!”
Dialogue between the US and Russia, aimed at agreeing a ceasefire ahead of a possible peace deal to end the war, has recently appeared to have stalled over disagreements around conditions for a full pause.
Mr Trump, pictured at a cabinet meeting at the White House earlier this week, has called for Russia to ‘get moving’. Pic: AP
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Secondary sanctions could be imposed on countries that buy Russian oil, Mr Trump has said, if he feels Moscow is dragging its feet on a deal.
Mr Putin has said he is ready in principle to agree a full ceasefire, but argues crucial conditions have yet to be agreed – and that what he calls the root causes of the war have yet to be addressed.
The Russian president wants to dismantle Ukraine as an independent, functioning state and has demanded Kyiv recognise Moscow’s annexation of Crimea and other partly occupied areas, and pull its forces out, as well as a pledge for Ukraine to never join NATO and for the size of its army to be limited.
Zelenskyy renews support calls after attack on home city
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Children killed in strike on Zelenskyy’s home town
Meanwhile, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has renewed his appeals for more Patriot air defence systems after the deaths of 20 people, including nine children, who were killed when a Russian missile hit apartment buildings and a playground in his home city of Kryvyi Rih last week.
Speaking online at a meeting of the so-called Ramstein group of about 50 nations that provide military support to Ukraine, named after a previous meeting at America’s Ramstein air base in Germany in 2022, Mr Zelenskyy said recent Russian attacks showed Moscow was not ready to accept and implement any realistic and effective peace proposals.
Mr Zelenskyy also made his evening address to the nation, saying: “Ukraine is not just asking – we are ready to buy appropriate additional systems.”
The UK’s defence secretary, John Healy, has said this is “the critical year” for Ukraine – and has confirmed £450m in funding for a military support package.
A family of five Spanish tourists, including three children, have been killed in a helicopter crash in New York City.
A New York City Hall spokesman identified two of those killed as Agustin Escobar, a Siemens executive, and Merce Camprubi Montal – believed to be his wife, NBC News reported.
The pilot was also killed as the aircraft crashed into the Hudson River at around 3.17pm on Thursday.
New York Police commissioner Jessica Tisch said divers had recovered all those on board from the helicopter, which was upside down in the water.
“Four victims were pronounced dead on scene and two more were removed to local area hospitals, where sadly both succumbed to their injuries,” she said.
The helicopter was submerged upside down in the Hudson. Pic: Reuters
A crane lifted out the wreckage on Thursday evening. Pic: AP
The Spanish president Pedro Sanchez called the news “devastating”.
“An unimaginable tragedy. I share the grief of the victims’ loved ones at this heartbreaking time,” he wrote on X.
Rotor blade ‘flew off’
The aircraft was on a tourist flight of Manhattan, run by the New York Helicopters company.
Witnesses described seeing the main rotor blade flying off moments before it dropped out the sky.
Agustin Escobar and Merce Camprubi Montal.
Pic: Facebook
Lesly Camacho, a worker at a restaurant along the river in Hoboken, said she saw the helicopter spinning uncontrollably before it slammed into the water.
“There was a bunch of smoke coming out. It was spinning pretty fast, and it landed in the water really hard,” she said.
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Witness saw ‘parts flying off’ helicopter
Another witness said “the chopper blade flew off”.
“I don’t know what happened to the tail, but it just straight up dropped,” Avi Rakesh told Sky’s US partner, NBC News.
Video on social media showed parts of the Bell 206 helicopter tumbling through the air and landing in the river.
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New York mayor confirms six dead
The crash happened near Pier 40. Pic: AP
New York Mayor Eric Adams confirmed the six deaths and said authorities believed the tourists were from Spain.
He said the flight had taken off from a downtown heliport at around 3pm.
Pic: Cover Images/AP
The crash happened close to Pier 40 and the Holland tunnel, which links lower Manhattan’s Tribeca neighbourhood with Jersey City to its west.
Tracking service Flight Radar 24 published what it said was the helicopter’s route, with the aircraft appearing to be in the sky for 15 minutes before the crash.
The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board have started an investigation.
Agustin Escobar.
Pic: Europa Press/AP
Thursday’s incident comes less than three month after 67 people died when an army helicopter and American Airlines jet collided over the Potomac River in Washington DC.
A former ballerina who spent more than a year in a Russian jail for donating £40 to a charity supporting Ukraine has returned home to the US after being freed in a prisoner exchange.
Ksenia Karelina landed at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland at around 11pm, local time, on Thursday.
A smiling Ms Karelina was greeted on the runway by her fiance, the professional boxer Chris van Heerden, and given flowers by Morgan Ortagus, President Donald Trump’s deputy special envoy to the Middle East.
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Ksenia Karelina arrives at Joint Base Andrews. Pic: AP
Van Heerden said in a statement he was “overjoyed to hear that the love of my life, Ksenia Karelina, is on her way home from wrongful detention in Russia.
“She has endured a nightmare for 15 months and I cannot wait to hold her. Our dog, Boots, is also eagerly awaiting her return.”
He thanked Mr Trump and his envoys, as well as prominent public figures who had championed her case, including Dana White, a friend of Mr Trump and CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
Ms Karelina, 34, a US-Russian citizen also identified as Ksenia Khavana, was accused of treason when she was arrested in Yekaterinburg, in southwestern Russia, while visiting family in February last year.
Investigators searched her mobile phone and found she made a $51.80 (£40) donation to Razom, a charity that provides aid to Ukraine, on the first day of Russia’s invasion in 2022.
She admitted the charge at a closed trial in the city in August last year and was later jailed for 12 years, to be served in a penal colony.
At a cabinet meeting on Thursday, Mr Trump, who wants to normalise relations with Moscow, said the Kremlin “released the young ballerina and she is now out, and that was good. So we appreciate that”.
Ksenia Karelina is hugged by her boyfriend, Chris van Heerden. Pic: Reuters
He said the release followed conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russian security services accused her of “proactively” collecting money for a Ukrainian organisation that was supplying gear to Kyiv’s forces.
The First Department, a Russian rights group, said the charges stemmed from a $51.80 donation to a US charity aiding Ukraine.
Washington, which had called her case “absolutely ludicrous”, released Arthur Petrov, who it was holding on charges of smuggling sensitive microelectronics to Russia, in the prisoner swap in Abu Dhabi.
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Karelina was among a growing number of Americans arrested in Russia in recent years as tensions between Moscow and Washington spiked over the war in Ukraine.
Her release is the latest in a series of high-profile prisoner exchanges Russia and the US carried out in the last three years – and the second since Mr Trump took office.
White House national security adviser Mike Waltz said members of the Trump administration “continue to work around the clock to ensure Americans detained abroad are returned home to their families”.
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