Source: www.MNNonline.org
Date: December 1, 2025
Ukraine (MNN) – Ukrainian children aged eleven and under have known only war. Some never reach adulthood – a recent attack on Ternopil killed 3 children.
Usually, when asked to draw something they like, a child might sketch a sun, a flower, a car, or a dog. However, Eric Mock of Slavic Gospel Association says the drawings they receive from Ukrainian kids tell a different story:
Girl in Despair (photo courtesy of Meruyert Gonullu via Pexels)
“All of their pictures involve pictures of missiles or bombs coming down and them hiding from them. Their idea of of daily life is a threat of an air raid siren and what it means to them.”
SGA also asked a few children about their prayers. “They said they pray for the war to end. They don’t ask for peace because they don’t know really what peace looks like,” Mock explained.
Many Ukrainian children are also growing up without a father. Some fathers have been killed, taken hostage, or are serving in the army.
“And so these children, the fabric of their communications with one another, the fabric of their walk through society, is dealing with the constant state of war. This causes anxiety and fear,” Mock says.
That’s why Slavic Gospel Association is running its Heat and Hope and Operation Winter Warmth efforts — practical, cold-weather relief projects aimed at easing the daily burden on families torn apart by war, especially single mothers and widows who are now carrying the full weight of providing for their children while struggling to make ends meet.
A Boy Behind The Glass (photo courtesy of Tanya Gorelova via Pexels)
The war has left deep trauma in children’s lives, but hope is not lost!
“The best medicine for these kids is the love of Jesus Christ and the warmth of a local fellowship of believers,” Mock said.
Hope exists alongside heartbreak. More than seven hundred children have been killed by Russian aggression, thousands more wounded, and around twenty thousand kidnapped to Russia.
Pray that many more children will find the help and healing they need in Christ. And pray for lasting, sustainable peace in Ukraine.
Header photo: Child Looking Through the Window (photo courtesy of Elina Fairytale via Pexels).