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.”
At least 12 people have been killed in a suicide bombing outside the gates of a court in Pakistan’s capital of Islamabad, the country’s interior minister has said.
At least 27 other people were also wounded after the bomber detonated his explosives next to a police car.
Interior minister Mohsin Naqvi said the attacker tried to “enter the court premises but, failing to do so, targeted a police vehicle”.
Mr Naqvi added that authorities are “looking into all aspects” of the attack.
Pic: Reuters
Pic: AP
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the explosion, but authorities have recently struggled with a resurgent Pakistani Taliban.
The explosion, which was heard from miles away, occurred at a busy time of day when the area outside the court is typically crowded with hundreds of visitors attending hearings.
More than a dozen badly wounded people were screaming for help as ambulances rushed to the scene.
“People started running in all directions,” said Mohammad Afzal, who claimed he was at the court when he heard the blast.
Pic: Reuters
Pic: AP
Pakistani security forces earlier said they foiled an attempt by militants to take cadets hostage at an army-run college overnight, when a suicide car bomber and five other attackers targeted the facility in a northwestern province.
The authorities blamed the Pakistani Taliban, which is separate from but allied with Afghanistan’s Taliban, but the group denied involvement in that attack on Monday evening.
The assault began when a bomber attempted to storm the cadet college in Wana, a city in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border.
The area had, until recent years, served as a base for the Pakistani Taliban, al Qaeda and other foreign militants.
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According to local police chief Alamgir Mahsud, two of the militants were quickly killed by troops while three others managed to enter the compound before being cornered in an administrative block.
The army’s commandos were among the forces conducting a clearance operation, and an intermittent exchange of fire went on into Tuesday, Mr Mahsud said.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif denounced both attacks and said those responsible must be brought to justice swiftly.
“We will ensure the perpetrators are apprehended and held accountable,” he said.
Mr Sharif described attacks on unarmed civilians as “reprehensible”, adding: “We will not allow the blood of innocent Pakistanis to go to waste.”
At least eight people have been killed and at least 19 others injured after a car exploded in New Delhi, say Indian police.
The blast, which triggered a fire that damaged several vehicles parked nearby, happened at the gates of the metro station at the Red Fort, a former Mughal palace and a busy tourist spot.
New Delhi’s international airport, metro stations and government buildings were put on a high security alert after the explosion, the government said. The cause of the explosion is being investigated.
The city’s police commissioner, Satish Golcha, said it happened a few minutes before 7pm.
“A slow-moving vehicle stopped at a red light. An explosion happened in that vehicle, and due to the explosion,
nearby vehicles were also damaged,” he told reporters.
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Local media said at least 11 people were injured and that Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh state had been put on high alert after the incident
Police officers and forensic technicians work at the site of the explosion. Pic: Reuters
The site of the explosion. Pic: Reuters
One resident, who did not give a name, told NDTV: “We heard a big sound, our windows shook.”
Sanjay Tyagi, a Delhi police spokesman, said they were still investigating the cause, while the fire service reported that at least six vehicles and three autorickshaws had caught fire.
Images show the burnt-out remnants of several cars and forensic officers at the scene.
The scene has now been sealed off. Pic: Reuters
Home minister Amit Shah told local media that a Hyundai i20 car exploded near a traffic signal close to the Red Fort. He said CCTV footage from cameras in the area will form part of the investigation.
“We are exploring all possibilities and will conduct a thorough investigation, taking all possibilities into account,” Shah said. “All options will be investigated immediately, and we will present the results to the public.”
The investigation is being conducted by the National Investigation Agency, India’s federal terror investigating agency, and other agencies.
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered his condolences to those who have lost their loved ones in the blast.
He posted on X: “May the injured recover at the earliest. Those affected are being assisted by authorities.
“Reviewed the situation with Home Minister Amit Shah Ji and other officials.”
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It is a moment few could have imagined just a few years ago but the Syrian president, Ahmed al Sharaa, has arrived in Washington for a landmark series of meetings, which will culminate in a face-to-face with Donald Trump at the White House.
His journey to this point is a remarkable story, and it’s a tale of how one man went from being a jihadist battlefield commander to a statesman on the global stage – now being welcomed by the world’s most powerful nation.
Mr Sharaa became leader of Syria after the fall of the Bashar al Assad regime in December last year.
Before that he went by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al Jolani.
During Syria’s brutal civil war, he was the leader of the Nusra Front – a designated terror organisation, the Syrian branch of al Qaeda.
Back then, the thought of him setting foot on US soil and meeting a US president would have been unthinkable. There was a $10m reward for information leading to his capture.
Ahmed al Sharaa meeting Donald Trump in Riyadh in May. Pic: AP
So what is going on? Why is diplomacy being turned on its head?
After 14 years of conflict which started during the so-called Arab Spring, Syria is in a mess.
Mr Sharaa – as the head of the transitional government – is seen by the US as having the greatest chance of holding the country together and stopping it from falling back into civil war and failed state territory.
But to do that, Syria has to emerge from its pariah status and that’s what the US is gambling on and why it’s inclined to offer its support and a warm embrace.
Donald Trump, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and Ahmed al Sharaa in May. Pic: Saudi Press Agency
By endorsing Mr Sharaa, it is hoping he will shed his past and emerge as a leader for everyone and unite the country.
Holding him close also means it’s less likely that Iran and Russia will again be able to gain a strong strategic foothold in the country.
So, a man who was once an enemy of the US is now being feted as a potential ally.
Mr Sharaa meeting Vladimir Putin in Moscow in October. Pic: Reuters
There are big questions, though. He has rejected his extremist background, saying he did what he did because of the circumstances of the civil war.
But since he took power, there have been sectarian clashes. In July, fighting broke out between Druze armed groups and Bedouin tribal fighters in Sweida.
It was a sign of just how fragile the country remains and also raises concerns about his ability to be a leader for everyone.
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Can Syria’s new president be trusted?
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Nonetheless, Mr Sharaa is viewed as the best chance of stabilising Syria and by extension an important part of the Middle East.
Get Syria right, the logic goes, and the rest of the jigsaw will be easier to put and hold together.
The visit to Washington is highly significant and historic. It’s the first-ever official visit by a Syrian head of state since the country’s independence in 1946.
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Top shot: Syrian leader shows off his basketball skills
The meeting with Donald Trump is, though, the really big deal. The two men met in Riyadh in May but in the meeting later today they will discuss lifting sanctions – crucial to Syria’s post-war reconstruction – how Syria can help in the fight against Islamic State, and a possible pathway to normalisation of relations with Israel.
The optics will be fascinating as the US continues to engage with a former militant with jihadi links.
It’s a risk, but if successful, it could reshape Syria’s role in the region from US enemy to strong regional ally.
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