‘I learned of my mother's death on Facebook': Traumatised orphans pay the price for Putin's war

Telegraph

18-04-2025

The explosion was deafening. But before 14-year-old Katya could react, a stranger threw himself over her and everything went black.
When she came to, she struggled to free herself from under the weight of the man's body. He had been killed outright in the blast but had given his life to save hers.
Katya had entered the station a few minutes earlier with her mother. They were travelling together to flee the fighting in Donetsk. Now, just a few feet away, she also lay dead.
'I heard people screaming and saw injured people all around. There was blood everywhere,' she said, recalling that fateful day on 8 April 2022, which left 63 civilians dead and injured 150 others.
'There was too much going on. The man who covered me did not survive. He died from the attack. He saved me. I will never forget it.'
The missile that killed 34 and injured 117 in Sumy on Sunday morning, was a near facsimile of the Russian outrage that orphaned Katya in Kramatorsk.
Both were caused by ballistic missiles fired by Russia into densely packed civilian areas seemingly deliberately and with the aim of spreading terror.
The missiles are notorious for their lethal precision, largely because they can deploy cluster munitions that scatter deadly shrapnel across a wide area.
Locals attending Palm Sunday services in Sumy, including two children, were caught in their path. The attack has been denounced as a war crime.
Katya is one of roughly 17,000 Ukrainian children orphaned by the war in Ukraine.
Many children in Ukraine have suffered since Russia invaded Ukraine. Their homes have been destroyed, families separated - and some have been abducted by Russia.
Katya and her 12-year-old sister Yulia, whose father died when they were young, are among those who have been orphaned.
The Telegraph met Katya, now 15, on the outskirts of Kyiv, where she lives with a woman who took them both in.
In many ways she's a typical teenager: She shared photographs of her artwork, scrolled through her Instagram page and laughed about her sister misbehaving.
But behind the deep brown eyes were signs of trauma that may never fade completely.
Almost 222,800 children have been forced to flee their homes since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Shortly before the missile strike on the station on April 8, 2022, Katya became one of them.
When Russia invaded their village Druzhkivka in Donetsk, Katya and her family were trapped in their home without a basement to hide in.
She recalled sheltering at her school, her classmates' paintings falling onto the floor with every explosion, hiding for up to seven hours at a time.
'We would call our friends to let them know we were alive,' she said. 'We would make sure to tell them where we were so that if a missile hit, they would find our bodies.'
'I have not recovered'
The Telegraph met Katya, now 15, on the outskirts of Kyiv, where she lives with a woman who took them both in.
In many ways she's a typical teenager: She shared photographs of her artwork, scrolled through her Instagram page and laughed about her sister misbehaving.
But behind the deep brown eyes were signs of trauma that may never fade completely.
Almost 222,800 children have been forced to flee their homes since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Shortly before the missile strike on the station on April 8, 2022, Katya became one of them.
When Russia invaded their village Druzhkivka in Donetsk, Katya and her family were trapped in their home without a basement to hide in.
She recalled sheltering at her school, her classmates' paintings falling onto the floor with every explosion, hiding for up to seven hours at a time.
'We would call our friends to let them know we were alive,' she said. 'We would make sure to tell them where we were so that if a missile hit, they would find our bodies.'
After weeks of shelling, her family decided to leave everything they knew behind. Katya recalled grabbing her friendship bracelet collection before they rushed out of their home with minutes to spare.
They reached Kramatorsk train station – an area supposedly safe from Russian attacks – but when Katya and her mother left the station shelter to get tea, tragedy hit.
She was spattered with shrapnel as the Russian shell hit, some of which remains in her leg today, and her knee was shattered.
'My leg still hurts now. I have not recovered,' she said.
At first, Katya was unaware that her mother had been killed. It wasn't until she began recovering from surgery and was given her phone back that she learned the truth.
'When I checked my phone, I saw a Facebook post from a family friend,' she explained. 'They said that my mother was killed in the attack. I learned my mother had died that way.'
Even now, the number of children like Katya in Ukraine is unclear.
It is impossible to record accurate figures of the number of children orphaned by the war, especially in areas under Russian occupation.
'These numbers are not just statistics: Behind each one is a specific child – carrying pain, trauma, and a life that will never be the same again,' said Daria Kasyanova, Chairperson of the Board of the Ukrainian Child Rights Network.
Ms Kasyanova told The Telegraph that she believes current estimates of 17,000 are far from the true toll.
Children in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions have suffered due to the hostilities there since 2014.
'There have been cases where children, after being deported or held in the occupied territories, were made to believe that their parents were dead,' she said.
'They were deliberately told this and placed in Russian institutions, where they were repeatedly told that no one needed them and that their parents were either dead or missing.'
It is believed that Russia has forcibly transferred nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children to territories under its control, assigned them Russian citizenship, and placed them in Russian families through forced adoption.
'The child is left in a state of complete powerlessness, unable to influence the situation or protect themselves,' said Ms Kasyanova.
Ms Kasyanova added that the situation in the occupied territories of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions is far more complex as it is near impossible to access affected children.
Olga Leus has dedicated herself to helping these children, working long hours as a family assistant at the Children of Heroes charity foundation.
At any one time, she is responsible for 320 children who have lost one or both parents, 24 hours a day. Her youngest ward is just one year old.
Ms Leus' husband was shot dead by a Russian sniper outside of their home in Mariupol in 2022.
His body was left in their doorway for five days while she and her two young sons, along with her mother-in-law, hid inside, unable to step outside without risking death alongside him.
After burying her husband in their garden, the four fled to Kyiv.
It was there that the murder of her husband and the devastation of her family fuelled her determination to support the war effort in any way possible.
'I hope I inspire them that there is life beyond this loss and that this life is not as hopeless as it seems,' she said. 'My own experience comes through when I speak to the families.'
Ms Leus explained that each child requires extensive and complicated psychological support.
'Many of the people I speak with do not know what to do, where they are heading or what to do next,' she said.
Profound trauma
The Children of Heroes charity foundation has 28 psychologists specialising in anything from grief to supporting teenagers specifically. They currently support around 13,000 children.
According to Ms Kasyanova, children orphaned by war suffer severe psychological issues and will require support for years to come.
'Such trauma leaves a profound imprint on the psyche, fostering feelings of helplessness, fear for one's life, anxiety about further loss, and the instinct to conceal one's true position as a means of survival,' she said.
Ms Kasyanova has encountered numerous children whose parents were killed in front of them, as well as two children who were left alone with their father's body for three days until they were rescued.
'Some children, for instance, stop speaking for months, completely withdrawing into themselves,' she said, referring to that case.
'After that, work with the child begins: psychologists, speech therapists, and other specialists help them process and overcome their traumatic experiences.'
Katya was taken to a series of hospitals after the death of her mother.
She received numerous surgeries in Dnipro before being sent to Lviv for four months for physical rehabilitation and finally to Vinnytsia. Her happiest memory is a recovery trip sponsored by a charity to Lisbon.
'It was wonderful to see the sea. It was beautiful,' she said as she scrolled through photographs of the sun and beach on her phone.
While she required support for her physical scars, her younger sister requires ongoing psychological support.
'I suffered physically, but my sister suffered a lot mentally,' said Katya. 'She has seen many doctors and psychologists.'
As we returned to the topic of her mother, Katya opened another photograph on her phone. In it, her mother, dressed in a pink top, smiled softly at the camera. Katya said it is her favourite of all of the photographs she owns.
'I remember how we played games together. My mother looks so young in photographs. My mother was beautiful.'