“Children are thriving down here”: The secret play center, which is hidden under the most dangerous city of Ukraine | Children’s health

In an underground accommodation in Kherson, probably the most dangerous city in UkraineChildren pursue between plastic chairs. Outside, mortar, artillery and drones fly their fatal paths across the Dnipro river back and forth, which separates the city from the Russian armed forces.

This provisional underground playing center is one of the few places where children can get in touch with each other. For a few hours it can be as if the war doesn’t happen. If the explosions come too close, teachers who work in the center clap louder or turn up the music to drown out the sound.

When children returned to school in Ukraine this month, every third disrupted their fourth academic year in a row. In areas on frontline such as Kherson, in which the schools were damaged in attacks, children have to study online for the most part.

But after they grew up in isolation at home or in bomb accommodations, children fall back in their training and development. They are also becoming more and more frustrated.

“My son asks me why he can’t go out because he says he could be killed at home or outside – there is no difference,” says Valentina*, 37, one of the mothers who use the center.

The risk of death or injury to all civilians is high. In Kherson, Russia has carried out a systematic drone campaign to spread terror among the residents, which was called “human safari” and which was called “human safari” and can represent a war crime. In July, A One -year -old boy was killed In the courtyard of a residential building in the Kherson region through a drone strike.

The Civilian victims are escalated In the past few months, according to the UN, most of the Russian attacks with large-scale explosive weapons in populated areas and short-term drones are attributed to frontline locations.

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Throughout Ukraine, overall, More than 3,000 children were killed or injured Since the beginning of the full war war in 2022, around 150 classrooms of children.

With such dangers, the families are forced to spend a large part of their lives underground or in the interior and to calculate any concern against the mortal danger. The teachers are inside and say that children now have difficulty making contacts, and their language and self -confidence have been withdrawn without access to their peers while some have not yet read.

Sarmina Strishenets, a conflict consultant at the British charity organization Save Childrensays: “Instead of concentrating on games, conviviality and passions, the children focus on physical survival.

“Many are now behind the core subjects for a year or two,” says Strishenets. “Childhood is attacked and they lose hope.”

The Underground Play Center in a secret place in a residential area of ​​Kherson is one of the few rooms in which children are personally supported by teachers and psychologists. It was founded last year by the chairman of a local housing association, Oleh Turchynskyi.

“We turned this basement into an animal shelter in 2023, increasing as attacks on the city,” says the 60-year-old. “When I saw the children thrown down here because they could spend time together, I realized that it was a great space for them.”

On weekdays it is a meeting point for children from one year to their late teenagers. The younger children sing, draw and play games while the older television or friends speak.

Psychologists try to relieve the children’s fear and problems, as well as conditions such as autism that they say that they can be more difficult to handle due to the war.

According to Turchynskyi, one of the children in the center lived in a basement for months during the line -up and developed diabetes because of the stress. When the boy started to take part in the game center, he only said yes or no, but now he begins to regain his trust after working with a psychologist there.

Last month, a drone hit the kitchen of Turchynskyi’s apartment on the 12th floor, while his wife was in the evening. His head and body were injured, and his wife remains in a critical condition in the hospital, her body full of splinter.

“Every day and every night I remember how she screamed – so loud and terrible,” says Turchynskyi. He says he stayed in Kherson because he feels a duty to the community and the children. “I just can’t leave these people alone.”

Back in the animal shelter, Valentina says that her home was also hit by a drone attack at the beginning of this year and that she and her son Klav, 15, now live with a friend. There is often no electricity or internet, and it avoids lights at night so as not to put on drones.

However, her greatest fear is that she tried to protect her son from her own fears – he now hardly reacts to the sound of explosions.

“Life is getting worse every day,” says Valentina. “I used to go to the supermarket, but now I’m going by bike by bike because there is no engine that drowns out the noise of the drones, so I know when I have to run.

“We are more likely to live,” she says.

* The name has been changed to protect your identity