They Have Fled to Safety But Ukraine’s Youngest Are Not Fine

The 36-year-old beautician and her daughter fled Zaporizhzhia, in south-eastern Ukraine, in early March, after a bomb blast shattered all the windows of their apartment. Around the time they were leaving, a Russian air strike set the city's nuclear plant - which is also Europe's largest - on fire, stoking fears of a nuclear disaster. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky dubbed the attack "nuclear terror".

With his order to invade Ukraine on February 24, Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, has unleashed the worst refugee crisis since World War II. One month into the invasion, 4 million people - half of them children - have sought safety in neighbouring countries, including Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova, says the UN refugee agency UNHCR.

Yet Russia's attack, which has turned Ukraine into a war zone, has not only upended lives, but it has also traumatised an entire generation of Ukrainians.

Almost 100 Ukrainian children are currently living in a youth home near Chestochowa, southern Poland. Over 80 are residents of Ukrainian orphanages. Photo: Marta Kasztelan Specialist care

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that at least half a million refugees in Poland require support for mental health disorders caused by the conflict. "While 30,000 suffer from severe mental health problems," Paloma Cuch, a WHO representative, said during an online briefing on March 22.

Though Victoria Boiko's daughter is now off the medication she took while in Ukraine to cope with the nerve-shattering reality of the Russian invasion, she's not out of the woods yet. During the one-week stopover in Poland, the girl spoke to two volunteer psychologists, but her mother wants to secure long-term therapy once they...