With cities largely emptied after hundreds of thousands have evacuated to safety, the young people who remain in Ukraine face loneliness and boredom as painful counterpoints to the fear and violence Moscow has unleashed on Ukraine.
Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, draws a smiley face in the fabric of a blanket at the home she shares with her grandparents in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. With no one her age left in her neighborhood and school classes taking place only online since Russia's invasion in February, video games and social media have taken the place of the walks and bike rides she once enjoyed with the friends who have since fled west to safety. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
AP Photo/David Goldman
Olena Aleksandrova, looks toward the thunder of nearby artillery booms from the garden of her home in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. Olena, said the family is waiting to see what will happen in Sloviansk before making a decision on whether to leave with her 12-year-old granddaughter. The front line is only 7 miles (12 kilometers) away and their city is considered a strategic target by Russia's military. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
AP Photo/David Goldman
Fish nets hang in the window as Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, cooks in the home she shares with her grandparents in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. Anastasiia said she can't remember the last time she played with someone her own age, but that she's made some new friends through the games she plays online. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
AP Photo/David Goldman
A necklace, half of a broken heart engraved with the word "Love," is worn by Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, at her home in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. Her best friend, Yeva, used to live on her street, but has evacuated with her family to western Ukraine. She misses her but they still share a special connection. Yeva, she said, wears the other half of the silver pendant. "I never take it off, and Yeva doesn't either," she said. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
AP Photo/David Goldman
Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, hugs her grandmother, Olena, at their home in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. "All our plans for summer are ruined but we are trying hard to make her life as colorful as possible," said Olena. "She is always with us, because you never know when and where there might be bombings. War does not bring happiness to anybody." (AP Photo/David Goldman)
AP Photo/David Goldman
Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, looks at her phone in her bedroom in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. Anastasiia's retreat into digital technology to cope with the isolation and stress of the war that rages on the front line only 7 miles (12 kilometers) away is an increasingly common phenomenon among young people in Ukraine's embattled Donetsk region. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
AP Photo/David Goldman
A wooden statue of children holding hands stands in an empty park in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 12, 2022. According to Ukraine's prosecutor general, 361 children have been killed in Ukraine since Russia's Feb. 24 invasion and 711 have been injured. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
AP Photo/David Goldman
Rodion Kucherian, 14, takes a break from scooting in an empty skate park to look at his phone in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022. Kucherian said that before the war, he and at least ten of his friends would be doing tricks in the bustling park alongside many other kids from nearby. But now his only connection to all of his friends, who have fled to countries like Poland and Germany, is on social media. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
AP Photo/David Goldman
A child waits for his mother outside one of the few shops still open in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022. Of the roughly 275,000 children aged 17 or younger in the Donetsk region before Russia's invasion, around 40,000 remain, the province's regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told The Associated Press in an interview. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
AP Photo/David Goldman
Sofia Mariia Bondar, 16, looks at her phone while sitting in the clothing shop where her mother works in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022. A piano player and singer who wants to study art at university after she finishes her final year of high school, Sofia Mariia said she was often bored since all her friends have left. Her mother, Viktoriia, said that with the danger of shelling always present and soldiers plying the streets, her daughter is no longer allowed to go out alone, and spends most of her time by her side. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
AP Photo/David Goldman
The lights in just a few windows illuminate an otherwise dark apartment block as Roman Kovalenko, 19, left, visits his friend, Oleksandr Pruzhyna, 18, right, in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 12, 2022. "It's a completely different feeling when you go outside. There is almost no one on the streets, I have the feeling of being in an apocalypse," said Pruzhyna, who lost his job at a barber shop after the invasion, and now spends most of his time at home playing computer games. "I feel like everything I was going to do became impossible, everything collapsed in an instant." (AP Photo/David Goldman)
AP Photo/David Goldman
Youth gather to play cards at a coffee shop before curfew in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. Pokrovsk, a town that's relative distance from the front line, allows for more socializing among young people as those in front line towns face boredom and isolation since most of their peers have fled. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
AP Photo/David Goldman
Roman Kovalenko, 19, left, walks away after visiting his friend, Oleksandr Pruzhyna, 18, at his apartment complex for their weekly get together in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 12, 2022. The two became close this winter when Russia's invasion began and now they are the only friends that each other have left in the city. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
AP Photo/David Goldman
The bike belonging to Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, sits untouched as she pets her dog outside the home she shares with her grandparents in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. With no one her age left in her neighborhood and school classes taking place only online since Russia's invasion in February, games and social media on her smartphone have taken the place of the walks and bike rides she once enjoyed with the friends who have since fled to safety. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
AP Photo/David Goldman
Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, pets her cat as she heads to the lake with her grandparents, Olena, right, and Andreii, rear, in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. Olena, said the family is waiting to see what will happen in Sloviansk before making a decision on whether to leave with Anastasiia. The front line is only 7 miles (12 kilometers) away and their city is considered a strategic target by Russia's military. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
AP Photo/David Goldman
Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, plays in the water while swimming with her grandfather, Andreii, rear, at a lake in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. The mass displacement of Ukrainians, overwhelmingly women and children, has upended countless childhoods, not only for those having to start a new life after seeking safety elsewhere, but also for the thousands who have stayed behind. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
AP Photo/David Goldman
Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, sits in the water while visiting a lake with her grandparents in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. Anastasiia said she can't remember the last time she played with someone her own age, but that she's made some new friends through the games she plays online. But it's no substitute for the excursions to the nearby salty lake she used to enjoy with her playmates, she said. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
AP Photo/David Goldman
Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, center, stands along the water's edge for a picnic with her grandparents, Olena, left, and Andreii, at a lake in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. "All our plans for summer are ruined but we are trying hard to make her life as colorful as possible," said Olena. "She is always with us, because you never know when and where there might be bombings. War does not bring happiness to anybody." (AP Photo/David Goldman)
AP Photo/David Goldman
Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, center, sits next to her grandmother, Olena, for a picnic at a lake in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. "I don't have anyone to hang out with. I sit with the phone all day," Anastasiia said from the bank of the lake. "My friends left and my life has changed. It became worse due to this war." (AP Photo/David Goldman)
AP Photo/David Goldman
Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, left, plays in the water while swimming with her grandparents, Olena, and Andreii, right, at a lake in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. With cities largely emptied after hundreds of thousands have evacuated to safety, the young people that remain face alienation, loneliness and boredom as unlikely yet painful counterpoints to the fear and violence Moscow has unleashed on Ukraine. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
SLOVIANSK, Ukraine (AP) — Anastasiia Aleksandrova doesn’t even look up from her phone when the thunder of nearby artillery booms through the modest home the 12-year-old shares with her grandparents on the outskirts of Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine.
With no one her age left in her neighborhood and classes only online since Russia’s invasion, video games and social media have taken the place of the walks and bike rides she once enjoyed with friends who have since fled.
“She communicates less and goes out walking less. She usually stays at home playing games on her phone,” Anastasiia’s grandmother, Olena Aleksandrova, 57, said of the shy, lanky girl who likes to paint and has a picture of a Siberian tiger hanging on the wall of her bedroom.
Anastasiia’s retreat into digital technology to cope with the isolation and stress of war that rages on the front line just seven miles (12 kilometers) away is increasingly common among young people in Ukraine’s embattled Donetsk region.
With cities largely emptied after hundreds of thousands have evacuated to safety, the young people who remain face loneliness and boredom as painful counterpoints to the fear and violence Moscow has unleashed on Ukraine.
“I don’t have anyone to hang out with. I sit with the phone all day,” Anastasiia said from the bank of a lake where she sometimes swims with her grandparents. “My friends left and my life has changed. It became worse due to this war.”
More than 6 million Ukrainians, overwhelmingly women and children, have fled the country and millions more are internally displaced, according to the U.N. refugee agency.
The mass displacement has upended countless childhoods, not only for those having to start a new life after seeking safety elsewhere, but also for the thousands who stayed behind.
In the industrial city of Kramatorsk, seven miles (12 kilometers) south of Sloviansk, the friendship between 19-year-old Roman Kovalenko and 18-year-old Oleksandr Pruzhyna has become closer as all of their other friends have left the city.
The two teenagers walk together through the mostly deserted city, sitting to talk on park benches. Both described being cut off from the social lives they enjoyed before the war.
“It’s a completely different feeling when you go outside. There is almost no one on the streets, I have the feeling of being in an apocalypse,” said Pruzhyna, who lost his job at a barber shop after the invasion and now spends most of his time at home playing computer games.
“I feel like everything I was going to do became impossible, everything collapsed in an instant.”
Of the roughly 275,000 children age 17 or younger in the Donetsk region before Russia’s invasion, just 40,000 remain, the province’s regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told The Associated Press last week.
According to official figures, 361 children have been killed in Ukraine since Russia launched its war on Feb. 24, and 711 others have been injured.
Authorities are urging all remaining families in Donetsk, but especially those with children, to evacuate immediately as Russian forces continue to bombard civilian areas as they press for control of the region.
A special police force has been tasked with individually contacting households with children and urging them to flee to safer areas, Kyrylenko said.
“As a father, I feel that children should not be in the Donetsk region,” he said. “This is an active war zone.”
In Kramatorsk, 16-year-old Sofia Mariia Bondar spends most days sitting in the shoe section of a clothing shop where her mother works.
A pianist and singer who wants to study art at university after she finishes her final year of high school, Sofia Mariia said there is “nowhere to go and nothing to do” now that her friends have left.
“I wish I could go back in time and make everything like it was before. I understand that most of my friends who left will never come back, no matter what happens in the future,” she said. “Of course it’s very sad that I can’t have all the fun like other teenagers do, but I can’t do anything about it, only cope with it.”
Her mother, Viktoriia, said that since the city has mostly emptied out, she manages to sell only one or two items per week.
But with the danger of shelling and soldiers plying the streets, her daughter is no longer allowed to go out alone and spends most of her time by her mother’s side in the store or at their home on the outskirts of Kramatorsk where the threat of rocket strikes is lower.
“I keep her near me all the time so that in case something happens, at least we will be together,” she said.
Of the roughly 18,000 school-age children in Kramatorsk before Russia’s invasion, only around 3,200 remain, including 600 preschoolers, said the city’s head of military administration, Oleksandr Goncharenko.
While officials continue to push residents to evacuate and provide information on transportation and accommodation, “parents cannot be forced to leave with their children,” Goncharenko said. When the school semester begins on Sept. 1, he said lessons will be offered online for those who stay.
In Kramatorsk’s verdant but nearly empty Pushkin Park, Rodion Kucherian, 14, performed tricks on his scooter on an otherwise deserted set of ramps, quarter pipes and grind rails.
Before the war, he said, he and his friends would do tricks in the bustling park alongside many other children. But now his only connection to his friends — who have fled to countries like Poland and Germany — is on social media.
He’s taken up other solitary activities just to keep himself busy, he said.
“It’s very sad not to see my friends. I haven’t seen my best friend for more than four months,” he said. “I started cycling at home so I don’t miss them as much.”
In Sloviansk, 12-year-old Anastasiia said she can’t remember the last time she played with someone her own age, but she’s made some new friends through the games she plays online.
“It’s not the same. It’s way better to go outside to play with your friends than just talking online,” she said.
Her best friend, Yeva, used to live on her street, but has evacuated with her family to Lviv in western Ukraine.
Anastasiia wears a silver pendant around her neck — half of a broken heart with the word “Love” engraved on the front — and Yeva, she said, wears the other half.
“I never take it off, and Yeva doesn’t either,” she said.
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