Kira, additionally 9, clung to Basik, a grey stuffed cat her mother gave her after they fled Bucha along with her older brother, separating them from their dad who stayed behind.

For the previous yr, these fourth-graders from the as soon as idyllic city the place Russian troopers executed many civilians have withstood the toll of an grownup struggle.

For the kids in Bucha and all through Ukraine, plush animals, safety blankets and different consolation gadgets have served as lifelines amid the chaos, particularly for many who escaped taking solely what they may carry.

Such valuable belongings at the moment are being slowly collected by the Battle Childhood Museum, a mission devoted to documenting the experiences of youngsters raised in struggle by cataloguing and displaying their most private reminiscences and possessions.

The museum, which relies in Bosnia, is planning so as to add to its Ukrainian assortment — now made up of round 150 toys, books and different ephemera primarily donated by kids who, since 2014, had survived the Russian-backed separatist struggle within the nation’s east.

By preserving kids’s mementos and reminiscences of struggle, the mission has been in a position to doc the person and shared expertise of rising up in a battle zone.

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A number of the museum’s irreplaceable fashionable artifacts — a stuffed penguin, a plastic horse and carriage, and a cardboard cat — are saved in an unlimited metallic protected in an workplace in Kyiv. Others are in a secret location within the Western metropolis of Lviv, the place they have been relocated in a rush final yr when employees feared the gathering may very well be destroyed as Russian forces superior on Kyiv.

The oral histories the museum collects, paired with a donated merchandise from every baby, problem the concept kids solely bear passive witness to battle — providing younger individuals the company to replicate on how they managed life throughout struggle.

Greater than 400 kids have been recorded killed and greater than 800 wounded in Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion final February, though the true toll might be far increased. Some have been schoolmates of the fourth-graders in Bucha, murdered alongside many mother and father locally. Amongst them have been Katya, from tenth grade, who died when Russian forces struck her household’s automobile as they tried to flee, and Vanya, a ninth-grader shot by Russian snipers as he tried to crawl to security. He was killed, his college principal suspects, “as a result of he was a tall, stunning boy” and the Russians “might have thought he was a person.”

Because the struggle in Ukraine continues to rage within the nation’s east and south, it’s too quickly for a lot of children to half with their comforting gadgets or to speak in-depth about their experiences. Even kids dwelling removed from the entrance traces face common air raid alerts that ship them working for canopy. Others have household and associates combating or dwelling within the fight zone.

The museum’s researchers are treading fastidiously, and have interviewed simply 11 kids since February final yr: 5 within the northeast metropolis of Kharkiv, 5 dwelling overseas in Poland and one, by video chat, in Spain. Two different researchers at the moment are documenting the tales of Ukrainian refugees in Germany.

“We don’t wish to discuss to children who’re … nonetheless coping” with probably the most excessive circumstances, mentioned Svitlana Osipchuk, 37, mission director of the museum’s Kyiv department. Taking part kids, she mentioned, ought to inform their expertise “as a previous story.”

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Museum employees create a file for every baby they interview. The kid’s donated merchandise is then given a singular identification quantity, wrapped in protecting paper and dealt with with gloves.

Solely a handful of individuals know the place precisely the complete assortment is saved in Lviv and solely 5 know the passcode to the protected in Kyiv. Objects from the gathering have been displayed in displays in Kyiv and Kherson, in Ukraine, in Sarajevo, and shortly in Bucharest.

When kids provide a toy or e book for the gathering, Viktoriia Nesterenko, 30, a Kharkiv-based researcher for the museum, tells them: “‘Your ache is on this object and this object will likely be in a museum,’” she mentioned. “‘Your ache is right here. Not in you, however right here.’”

“When kids inform the complete story they’re therapeutic themselves,” she mentioned.

Many Ukrainian kids are nonetheless studying the best way to inform theirs.

At Faculty No. 4 in Bucha, a yr after the Russian retreat, indicators of struggle are nonetheless all over the place. The basement is used as a bomb shelter. One gymnasium has been reworked right into a volunteer hub.

Directors changed the shrill college bell — too much like air raid sirens — with music. One corridor on the primary ground is now house to a “Reminiscence Wall” honoring college students and alumni killed in the course of the Russian occupation final yr or on the entrance traces elsewhere within the nation.

Fourth-grade trainer Ina Makariva, 60, wept as she described how the kids in her class had been compelled to mature.

These college students fled at totally different factors within the struggle — some underneath intense shelling, others earlier than Russian forces superior. Many have since returned house, however some, becoming a member of the category on Zoom, are nonetheless overseas. Their lecturers say they aren’t the identical.

“The scholars even realized the distinction between sorts of weapons,” Makariva mentioned. “They’re modified. They’re much older. They turned rather more severe.”

“It’s like a line appeared,” she added. “There was childhood on one facet — and rapidly they grew up.”

Russia sentences dad to jail after daughter’s antiwar artwork, however he flees

Sitting within the entrance row, 9-year-old Kira clutched Basik, the cat, and her different stuffed animal, Brut, a canine. Each have been wearing child garments she took from a volunteer heart the place her dad had been working. However a month in the past, he was deployed as a soldier for the primary time. She mentioned she didn’t know the place he was — solely that they hadn’t been in a position to discuss as a lot as earlier than.

This separation has been particularly exhausting; her dad is the one one she permits to tuck her in at evening.

Just a few days later, she received a welcome shock when her dad, Viacheslav Kryvitskiy, 40, was in a position to briefly return house — providing the household some uncommon time collectively earlier than he went again to his new submit.

Sitting round their kitchen desk, the household took turns cuddling their guinea pig and pet — acquired shortly earlier than Kryvitskiy was deployed — and sharing tales from the early days of the struggle.

Kira’s mother, Tetiana Kryvytska, 40, recalled how she drove the youngsters west final February, counting on strangers for assist. She quickly misplaced contact along with her husband, who stayed behind to volunteer in Bucha.

When requested if, in the course of the month aside, he had ever come face-to-face with Russian troopers, Kryvitskiy glanced at his spouse. Her eyes widened. He had by no means advised his household this story.

Ukrainians wrestle to search out and reclaim kids taken by Russia

At some point, he mentioned, he and different volunteers went on the lookout for bread. Russian forces had already began executing civilians, and out of doors a grocery retailer, they discovered the lifeless strewn throughout the road. Horrified, they tried to maneuver one of many our bodies. Then a Russian soldier appeared. “He cocked his gun at us and mentioned: ‘Put it again,’” Kryvitskiy recalled, his voice cracking. They slowly backed away and returned to the hospital the place they have been based mostly.

Even in spite of everything this time, he hadn’t needed to burden his household with that reminiscence.

In any other case, the mother and father mentioned, they haven’t tried to cover the horrible realities of struggle from Kira, or her brother, Nazar, who’s 12 — whilst they see the way it has modified them. They watch the information. They inform the kids they’ve an enemy. On a drive someday, Nazar requested his father: “Is that this the road the place the executions occurred?” He advised him it was.

In school, Kira’s classmates shared the phrases they consider once they replicate on life throughout wartime. They referred to as out from their seats: “Unhappy.” “Horrible.” “Battle.” “Worry.” “Ache.” “Misplaced.” “Shelling.”

At house, her dad reviewed the checklist and mentioned there was yet another phrase he needed so as to add: “Victory.”

Serhiy Morgunov contributed to this report.