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Newsweek

Minefields Over Minecraft—Ukraine's Youth Robbed of Childhood Innocence

Things are getting worse in Ukraine these days. The frontline feels like a giant game of Pac-Man as Russians try to gobble up remote agrarian villages where hardscrabble families eke out a desperate living. Here, for children living in these villages, the horror is unimaginable. Miles of newly dug trenches and "dragon teeth," strings of cable connecting pyramidal cement blocks designed to stop tanks and armored vehicles, create a haunting maze across once-prized and meticulously tilled farmlands between villages and towns. For children, red signs and flagging mark field after field mined by the Russians. We crossed these structures carefully, led by local leaders connecting us with the neediest children and families. With schools closed and classes only online, a Ukrainian girl takes part in arts and crafts, here making hand prints in the blue and yellow colors of the national flag, in a program supported by... With schools closed and classes only online, a Ukrainian girl takes part in arts and crafts, here making hand prints in the blue and yellow colors of the national flag, in a program supported by UNICEF and the Howard Buffett Foundation, on January 22, 2025, in Izium, Ukraine. MoreMy recent trip was my twelfth to Ukraine since the war started in 2022. As a co-founder of the nonprofit Common Man for Ukraine, I've been all over the war-ravaged country, providing food, critical hygiene items, and at the holidays, small toys for children. We also provide residential trauma counseling retreats to children whose fathers have been killed in the war. Our volunteer convoys have crisscrossed Ukraine's vast landscape from Lviv to Kyiv, Odessa to Kherson, and on my recent trip, Kharkiv and 16 small villages at the Russian frontline. I've joined our convoys across more than 20,000 miles on unmarked, abandoned roads, highways and dirt paths, providing food to children living in safe houses and orphanages in western and central Ukraine. I've hugged thousands of children hiding from Russian kidnapping and bombing. These children are secreted away in hidden safe houses where brokenhearted mothers and fathers sent them in hopes that these precious children—Ukraine's progeny—would survive the war. In a brief moment of calm, Common Man for Ukraine Co-Founder Susan Mathison (bottom right) sits with children at a safe house in a frontline Ukrainian village in March 2025, after delivering food, clothes, and... In a brief moment of calm, Common Man for Ukraine Co-Founder Susan Mathison (bottom right) sits with children at a safe house in a frontline Ukrainian village in March 2025, after delivering food, clothes, and Beanie Babies. More Photo Courtesy of Common Man for Ukraine Typical now, as we arrived at a frontline village the air alert sirens blared loudly. Our air alert app indicated ongoing threats. We could hear concussive explosions just beyond the tree line to the east. And yet, quietly, calmly, hundreds of mothers, grandmothers, old men and hundreds of children waited for the food we could deliver to them. Food, hygiene items, and toys for the children. Messages of hope, love, and strength from people they will never know. After most of our food had been delivered, I entered the village's abandoned school. Bright walls were painted with bright flowers that no children see. The soggy floor sagged below the gaping hole in the roof. Shelling? Windows were blown out and a curtain flapped languidly in the breeze. A child's tiny blue plastic airplane rested on a once-perfectly painted windowsill, covered now in broken glass. There was no electricity here. And no teaching. The chalkboards were clean and the chairs pulled neatly to each desk. And, in a corner, a brightly colored booklet caught my eye. A comic book. Simple enough, in Ukrainian, and, ironically now, a USAID logo at the bottom. A partnership between the U.S. government and the Ukrainian children's agency. I flipped through the book. The pictures told the story of these children's terror. I gasped. With this March 2025 humanitarian supply convoy to Ukraine's frontline villages, nonprofit Common Man for Ukraine has delivered more than 4 million pounds of food to the children of war. Their 13th convoy is planned... With this March 2025 humanitarian supply convoy to Ukraine's frontline villages, nonprofit Common Man for Ukraine has delivered more than 4 million pounds of food to the children of war. Their 13th convoy is planned for August. More Photo Courtesy of Common Man for Ukraine Tiny drawings showed the bear with the bomb hidden gently inside the bear's fluffy tummy, ready to kill the child who ignored the warning. Another image showed an unexploded ammunition and mine in a pile of leaves, warning kids not to play. "Among the branches, fallen leaves, and under the snow in Ukraine, it is difficult to notice a strike." What child has not aimlessly kicked up a rustling pile of fun? For Ukrainian children, it might cost them a leg or a life. The comic book that Susan Mathison found on a recent trip to Ukraine. The comic book that Susan Mathison found on a recent trip to Ukraine. Photo Courtesy of Common Man for Ukraine Another page showed red and white triangles, explaining that this means the ground around them is mined. A child running, carefree in an open field of grass? Not in Ukraine, it says. The Russians have mined the fields that once hosted your games and your family's livelihood. Simple drawings, a comic book. For the youngest child to understand. To try to survive. To remember every second of the day. Air alerts. Bombing. Teddy bears with bombs. Fields designed to kill. The terror felt by Ukrainian children. Children who struggle to make sense of the senseless. These children, the ones that survive, the ones that we hope will live in a free and independent Ukraine, will need our help for decades to come. We've begun the work already, delivering thousands of tons of aid, providing trauma counseling, and reminding Ukrainians young and old, that Americans cannot and will not give up on them. Common Man for Ukraine, a nonprofit that is moving mountains in Ukraine, proves that everyday Americans care. We'll return for our thirteenth convoy in August. Every child deserves a comic book with a happy ending. Susan Mathison co-founded the New England-based grassroots nonprofit in 2022, serves as president of her local Habitat for Humanity chapter, and retired after a 30-year career at the USDA Forest Service. The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.