“See, Mom, How We Got Buried”; Yaroslav’s Story from the Kherson Region
The village of Khreshchenivka in the Kherson region was liberated by Ukrainian Armed Forces in October 2022. Over 30% of local homes were destroyed by Russian troops.
Even though shelling can still be heard in the distance, Khreshchenivka is slowly coming back to life. About 140 people have already returned, and a third of them are children.
Everyone in the village knows Yaroslav. After one of the Russian attacks, a wall collapsed on him. Neighbors pulled him out from under the rubble of the destroyed house.
“They came and started shelling us,” the boy says, pointing to where his house once stood. He was peacefully asleep when he suddenly heard explosions and felt something heavy fall on him.
After the shelling, nothing was left of their house. And Yaroslav lost the thing he cherished most—his bicycle, which he used to ride all around the village. Getting his bike back became his biggest dream.
He is one of thousands of children living through the war. It didn’t pass them by—they’ve lived it, yet never lost their dreams. Only children surrounded by explosions and ruins can dream of something so simple and purely childlike—a bicycle.
Watch how Yaroslav’s dream came true.