‘They draw bombs, tanks and wishes for peace’: Ukraine’s child mental health crisis

Two days after Russian forces entered Ukraine, on 26 February, the country's public military administration requested that a psychological support system be put in place at Lviv train station.

Thousands of women and children were passing through the station, 80km (50 miles) from the border with Poland, and the need for doctors and psychiatrists to support the displaced was immediately clear.

"The first week was very difficult," says Dr Orest Suvalo, psychiatrist and coordinator of the support centre. "There were people arriving from Kyiv and Kharkiv who showed critical signs of distress. Many children, but also adults, were panicking, looking for shelters and buses to Poland.''

Mental health workers and doctors in Lviv report that thousands of Ukrainian refugee children displaced by the war are showing severe symptoms of trauma. "I have seen children here with catatonic symptoms, where they kind of freeze and don't react to any outside stimulation," says Dr Viktor Balandin, psychologist for the Ukrainian NGO Osonnya. "Many of them have stopped speaking, others cannot move their hands or fingers. They just freeze."

Since the Russian invasion began, millions of Ukrainian children have had to abandon their schools, toys and games. They have been forced to leave their bedrooms to move into bomb shelters, basements and refugee facilities. The war has also killed their peers; according to Ukraine's general prosecutor, 90 children have died so far.

The trauma of the conflict runs deep for young people who are displaced, with many, if not most of them, bearing the psychological scars of terror.

Mental health doctors in Ukraine say the sudden absence of fathers, forced to remain in the country after the government applied martial law banning men aged 18-60 from leaving, has also had a significant impact on children's lives.