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GENEVA —The two-year-old Ukraine war is causing widespread suffering, anxiety and distress among affected children, many of whom have been separated from their families and friends, had schooling disrupted and lived for months in cold underground bunkers, a UNICEF spokesman told VOA Wednesday.
"Two years of this war is wreaking havoc on children's mental health now. They have not been anywhere near a classroom for years, and they have not seen their friends. Many of their friends have gone," UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told VOA from Kharkiv, Ukraine, by Zoom.
Elder, who was midway through a weeklong mission in Ukraine, said the situation prevailing today is different from that right after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, but pointed to the population's sense of grief and fear that has persisted.
"When I arrived a day after the war started, I was in Lviv watching what was the biggest refugee crisis since World War II, and that was just one of grief, just these endless farewells of husbands and wives and fathers and children, as people just fled across the borders," he said.
"To be here two years later, particularly this year in Kharkiv with its proximity to Russia, I think it is still grief. It is very real fear that what has happened to these people during those first five, six months will happen again here," he said.
"It is not debilitating fear. They will not allow that to happen. But it is fear because attacks are very consistent."
The battle of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) from the Russian border, took place between February 24 and May 13, 2022. It took a heavy toll in civilian lives and caused significant destruction and damage to the city's infrastructure.
Schools damaged and destroyed
According to the Ukrainian government, more than 3,800 educational facilities in the country have been damaged or destroyed, severely interrupting access to education for millions of children.
Only 2 out of 700 schools in Kharkiv are delivering in-person learning. Most children are studying online. Others attend classes in five Metro stations that have been converted into underground schools.
Elder said the loss of in-school education is having a profound impact on young peoples' mental health.
"I must have heard parents and psychologists talk to me about their concerns about socialization of children, of little ones being scared in groups together, of teenagers that are never seeing each other," he said.
"That isolation and lack of socialization, I think, is just bringing home what everyone fears - that this psychological scarring after two years is becoming very pronounced among young people and among their parents."
Constant air raid alerts
Elder told VOA it is distressing for young people having to drop everything and rush to an underground shelter whenever air raid alerts sound.
"I was just speaking to a 16-year-old girl who was injured in the first hour of the war two years ago, and she still spoke of her fear because the air raids are so consistent, because she knows that it takes 45 seconds for most of these missiles or drones to come across. That is usually not enough time for air defenses," he said.
UNICEF says that children in frontline cities have been forced to spend 3,000 to 5,000 hours, the equivalent of four to almost seven months, sheltering in basements and underground Metro stations.
The agency says this winter has been "particularly horrific for children, with thousands sheltering in cold, damp basements," as increasing attacks have left many families without heat, water and electricity.
"The continued shelling leaves little opportunity for Ukraine's children to recover from the distress and trauma associated with attacks," UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement Friday.
"Every siren and explosion bring further anxiety. Education is a pillar of hope, opportunity and stability in children's lives, but it continues to be disrupted or out of reach for millions of Ukraine's children," she said.
Children and parents affected
According to a UNICEF survey, half of 13- to 15-year-olds have trouble sleeping, and 1 in 5 have intrusive thoughts and flashbacks, which are "typical manifestations of post-traumatic stress disorder."Data shows that parents also suffer high levels of anxiety, excessive fear, phobias and sadness and that "at a time when parental support is most needed, half of parents surveyed report that they are struggling to support their children."
Elder expressed concern that two years of war have robbed Ukrainian children of their childhood.
"And the war is not stopping," he said. "In fact, in some areas, it has deteriorated. It has got more intense in the last month or two. And that is pushing children further and further into their shells - more and more squashing their hopes."
He said, "Fewer and fewer children think about what they might want to do in six months or 12 months. Everyone I talk to says they take things day by day.
"As a woman said, our aim is to survive the night and then wake up in the morning," he said.