Children in eastern Ukraine bear invisible wounds of conflict

_{Viktoria is among hundreds of thousands of children who are still suffering from the consequences of conflict in eastern Ukraine, seven years after it first began.}

Even at just 16 years old, Viktoria struggles to remember much of her childhood. 

She is not even able to recall the terrible morning in August 2014 that being a nine-year-old child, she left her home in eastern Ukraine, with just her mother and her cat, fleeing the whistling artillery shells.

The armed conflict in eastern Ukraine has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and destroyed cities. But more than that – it has shattered childhoods.

“I have forgotten what my family members look like, I don’t remember many joyful events and trips,” says Viktoria. “It’s very hard to forget who I was. It’s like I am lost.”

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