Listen to the audio:
Ukraine has been in a state of full-scale war with Russia for almost three years. There are no safe places in Ukraine untouched by the war. More than a million Ukrainians are now fighting in [the] country’s defense forces.
According to the International Organization for Migration, over two years, more than 14 million Ukrainians, a third of [the] country’s population, have been forced to leave their homes. Of these, 6.5 million are currently living abroad as refugees, 4.5 million have already returned home, and 3.7 million remain internally displaced within Ukraine.
Against this tragic backdrop, Ukrainian youth are not losing heart but continue to build their lives in new circumstances. Some like Ukrainian Catholic University student Volodymyr Shypitsyn joined the army as volunteers.
Others, like Kateryna Kremin or Lidia Hnatiuk, started to help people in need. This path is often chosen even by internally displaced people, such as Maria Ustinova, who survived the occupation of her hometown Oleshky in southern Ukraine, but has worked through her traumas and now works with teenagers at Caritas in [the] small town of Brody in western Ukraine. It is here that Maria met her fiancé, Fedir Khudiakova, also an internally displaced person. Together, they deliver volunteer aid to Donbas.
Oleh Romanchuk, a psychologist and head of the Institute of Mental Health at the Ukrainian Catholic University lists the most common mental health disorders faced by Ukrainian youth. Post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, depression, sleep disorders and eating disorders. But he doesn’t consider this generation lost and speaks about post-traumatic growth and resilience.
The young Ukrainians, the heroes of this story, come from different regions and have diverse experiences and backgrounds. Yet, they all assert that the war has made them grow up quickly. And now, they live in the moment, without making long-term plans, as everything can change very quickly.
Read “Hardly Lost” in the December 2024 edition of ONE.