A familiar scene to any parent – but given a closer look, some of the paintings bear details that are deeply troubling.
These children are at a special camp in Ukraine, set up by non-governmental organisation Gen.Ukrainian, to help the young people most traumatised by the war with Russia.
Some saw their parents killed in front of them.
Children are encouraged during art therapy to explore their emotions to help them deal with the trauma they endured at the hands of Russia (Photo: Gen.Ukrainian)The US government had been funding the specialist team based at Yale University.
The founder of the Gen.Ukrainian therapy camp has spoken out about why that decision will have harmful consequences.
“What [the Lab] showed us was amazing work. I had hope. Their work is crucial. It is vital for our society,” she said.
The Lab’s investigators had recently tracked down 314 children taken from Ukraine and spread across Russia. These children were between the ages of two and 17.
Questions have been raised about what happened to their files recording potential war crimes, forcing the State Department to deny the evidence had been deleted.
Around 1,240 children have so far been repatriated, according to Bring Kids Back UA, an initiative launched by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to rescue children from deportation and occupation.
Last year, they took in a group of 46 children who had been abducted or forced to live under occupation.
Children and teenagers who were forced to live under Russian occupation or were abducted and taken across the border convalesce at the camp (Photo: Gen.Ukrainian)
Not many details can be shared about these children, for both privacy and security reasons. But Gen.Ukrainian shared with The i Paper a previously unreleased report from the team’s psychology team.
It detailed how the children carried signs of trauma: their muscles were constantly tense in a psychical reaction to their prolonged experience of fear, their minds have been manipulated to make them obey any command from an adult without question, their personalities have lost the fun and innocence of childhood.
The trained obedience of the children shocked Lebedeva and her team the most as it was not something they had observed in the previous groups of Ukrainian children who had not been captured by the Russians.
“They are conditioned to obey any command from an adult without question. They bow when greeting, as if an adult is someone you have to please and fear injury from,” she recalled.
‘Trembling with fear’
Most of the group of 46 children don’t want to share their stories with strangers.
Max*, now 17, watched his father die after he was beaten by Russian troops. “He was lying [on the floor]. I started doing chest compressions, but I wasn’t sure how to do it right, and he died right in front of me,” he said.
“They thoroughly searched both me and my mother. They undressed us themselves, waist high.”
A girl undergoes a form of physical therapy to help release muscular tension from long-term experience of stress and fear (Photo: Gen.Ukrainian)The younger children talked about school and their unhappiness at singing the Russian national anthem and having to read new textbooks that preached of the glory and strength of Russia compared to the weakness of their homeland, Ukraine.
“We try to give them different ideas on how to cope with what they have to live with. Instead of their hatred of Russians, [we focus on] love to the dead parents. It’s a totally different perspective, and that’s why we call our program sheltered by love.
Putin’s war crimes
Vladimir Putin and Russian children’s commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, have been formally accused by the International Criminal Court (ICC) of the deportation of children, which is a war crime.
Data that could support the legal case proving Russia is committing war crimes against these children was gathered by the Yale Lab, which was in formal evidence sharing agreements with the ICC and was in the process of transferring data to Europol.
A child enjoys a play session at Gen.Ukrainian as part of his recovery programme, which includes a focus on encouraging children to learn how to have fun again (Photo: Gen.Ukrainian)The i Paper asked Lebedeva, who has suffered her own tragedies in the war, if she had a message for the US president, who has the power to overturn the funding cut.
“To rescue and help the wellbeing of Ukrainian children is an investment to the world.”
*Names have been changed to protect the children’s identities.
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