Before Russia invaded Ukraine, Varvara Tupkalenko's two sons played with miniature cars. Today, toy guns and mortar barrels can be found in their living room in the village of Kalynove.

Kalynove

Russian forces have invaded Ukraine from land, air and sea with strikes causing widespread damage. Global leaders have condemned the move and imposed sanctions.

Ukraine Invasion

In the village of Kalynove near Ukraine's northeastern border, brothers Andriy and Maxim are the last children remaining as a result of the ongoing conflict with Russia. Their daily lives have been transformed by war, shifting from playing with toy cars to war games among the remnants of armored vehicles and trenches. Their mother, Varvara Tupkalenko, describes the emotional toll on her sons, especially after the loss of their father on the front line. 

The family alternates between the relative freedom of the village and the dangers of nearby Kharkiv, which is also frequently targeted. The boys have not attended school in years, first due to remote learning during the pandemic and then ongoing hostilities. Their experiences reflect the deep psychological scars left on children in conflict zones, as noted by organizations like Save the Children.

Brothers in abandoned Ukrainian village live a childhood shaped by war

Brothers Andriy and Maxim are the last two children left in Kalinovy, their mother says. This small village lies some nine miles from the Russian border in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region. ANASTASIA, Mother of Andriy and Maxim Kalinovy, Russian Migrant They go together with their grandpa to the edge of the village, where the trenches are. Look at the trenches. Walk inside them. Before Russia invaded the country more than three years ago, the boys were like any other kids, playing with miniature cars. Now they climb through the charred remains of armored vehicles, playing war games. Their mother, Varvara Tupkalenko, is struggling to live with the toll of Europe's largest land war since World War II, which she says is leaving her children with deep psychological wounds. Earlier this year, there were six children left in the shrapnel-marked village. Now it's just the Tupkalenko boys. VARVARA TUPKALENKO, Mother of Andriy and Maxim Kalinovy, Russian Migrant We left in the beginning of 2022. We were away for a month. Then we came back to Kharkiv, and in 2023, we came back to the village. Their father, Yuri, was killed on the front line in 2023. VARVARA TUPKALENKO, Mother of Andriy and Maxim Kalinovy, Russian Migrant It is tough, emotionally and physically, with all that is going on. The kids miss their father. My younger one would often get up at 1 a.m. and ask me to show him a photo of his dad. A Ukrainian counteroffensive pushed Russian troops back in late 2022, but both armies still trade blows a mere 12 miles away. In the meantime, the brothers attempt to live out some semblance of a normal childhood. These days, that means setting up make-believe checkpoints from a wooden fort to vet fellow villagers. Cloth netting, they say, offers protection from drones. VOLODYMYR KACHENKO, Grandfather of Andriy and Maxim Kalinovy, Russian Migrant Before the war started, they used to play with cars. During the war, it is only weapons, revolvers, assault rifles, grenade launchers, machine guns. That's it, kids suffering from war. The boy's grandfather, Volodymyr Kachenko, notices the change too. VOLODYMYR KACHENKO, Grandfather of Andriy and Maxim Kalinovy, Russian Migrant They keep playing war all the time. They have weapons, toy weapons. That's what they like most. They hide. They camouflage themselves, try to figure out how it is done. As the conflict reshapes the fabric of ravaged frontier communities like Kalinovy, Tupkalenko has to make stark choices for the sake of her children. When the actual fighting intensifies, she takes them back to the family's apartment in nearby Kharkiv. But the second largest city in Ukraine is often a target, and the swarms of drones that pounded at night terrify Andriy and Maxim. ANDRIY KACHENKO, Grandfather of Andriy and Maxim Kalinovy, Russian Migrant Nobody is forcing us to leave. We can leave, but we are used to living in the countryside. The kids keep crying, asking to come back to the village. There are spaces here to play, to walk, to ride bikes. There are no such possibilities in the city. In Kalinovy, the boys roam relatively freely, buying snacks from the mostly bare village store and helping their grandfather with chores. Still, safety is precarious. Hours before Reuters' second visit to their home, a glide bomb hit, rattling their house. There was another strike hours later. Neither of the boys have set foot in a classroom for years because Russia's invasion extended the COVID-19 remote learning, depriving them of social contact. Save the Children says the invisible scars of war on young people can range from anxiety and fear to longer-term effects like depression and impaired emotional development. Standing in front of a wall-mounted map inside their home, Andriy talks factually about his father's death. ANDRIY KACHENKO, Grandfather of Andriy and Maxim Kalinovy, Russian Migrant Nobody The last time I saw him was in Kharkiv, our old apartment. He went away and never came back. He went to war. He served. He was taking part in an assault, and bullets got him. Had he not been taking part in the assault, he wouldn't have died. The boys often express their anger towards Russia, especially over their father's death. ANASTASIA KALINOVY, Grandmother of Andriy and Maxim Kalinovy, Russian Migrant The children, they have grown to hate Russia. Their childhood has been broken. Their minds have been broken. They are playing, and there is a Russian flag in the game. They burn it down straight away. They themselves say they hate the Russians, that they are murderers. We will go to the Donbass and avenge him, they say.

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Brothers in abandoned Ukrainian village live a childhood shaped by war

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Ukraine Invasion