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19.11.2025
“I Don’t Want to Leave Kharkiv. Who, If Not Us, Will Rebuild It?”: Ania Kovalenko’s Story
Kharkiv is a frontline city where Ania grew up. At the beginning of the full-scale war, she associated it only with explosions and gloomy buildings. Now, she associates it with the people who create and keep life going in the city, no matter what.
Ania Kovalenko is 16 years old. She dreams of becoming an architect and one day rebuilding her home, destroyed by Russian shelling. Thinking about this gives her strength, just like the people who stay close and refuse to let the city disappear.
I used to be afraid of not really living my life. Just existing. So, I have to try to make it so full that I’ll never regret not living it to the fullest,
Ania draws, plays the guitar, and takes part in exhibitions and art residencies. Through creativity, she speaks about what matters most: her generation, her Kharkiv, and herself. She is passionate about different forms of art, searching for herself in each of them. Like Hryhorii Skovoroda, a Ukrainian philosopher, she dreams of finding her place in life, to be useful and, at the same time, to enjoy her work.
Last year, Ania took part in the Storytelling in Cinema with Elements of Art Therapy course, created by the Voices of Children Foundation together with film director Marysia Nikitiuk. Teenagers from different cities across Ukraine studied filmmaking, took part in sessions with psychologists, and produced their own film, Generation. The film became the voice of their experience of growing up during the war.
The main idea that Marysia constantly emphasizes to the children is that cinema and creativity should be about them. We reflected on what is important to us right now, and we decided to convey our experience through the camera. Teenagers should not be united only by tragedies, stories of suffering, or loss. But it seems to me that the scariest thing is that this experience will still shape us in the future,
In the film, she speaks about what hurts many Ukrainian teenagers: loss, choosing a future, and love for their homeland.
It makes me sad, because if we leave, who will shape our country, our culture, our history? But what worries me most is our country’s future. Because we’re losing a generation. And maybe I want to live this life for the sake of those who are no longer here,
Recently, Ania’s story was heard in Chile at the opening of the exhibition No hay niños, hay gente (“No Children—But People”), organized by the Voices of Children Foundation together with partners, as part of the Bring Kids Back UA initiative. The exhibition tells the world about Russia’s abduction of Ukrainian children and shows that behind every statistic there is a real story of pain, forced re-education, and loss of identity.
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