How war makes kids grow up angry

It took two bombs to make Sasha’s younger brother blow a fuse. After almost four years of war, Ukrainian kids are growing up surrounded by violence, often mirroring it themselves.

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By Marie Scovell

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It was long past midnight. The ground was shaking with every explosion, each one growing closer than the last.

I couldn’t help but shake and cover my head, afraid that my eardrums would burst from the deafening sound of missiles destroying our neighborhood.

My family was holding on to each other, crowding our tiny corridor, too small for all five of us. By March 2023, we had learned to shelter from danger within my apartment’s thick, blank hallways, but no walls could protect us from fear.

Vova, one of my two younger brothers, was weeping, scared and exhausted by a sleepless night.

“Tell me, what do you want for your next birthday,” my mother said, hugging the twins.

After a few long minutes, he took a breath to shout what shocked us all:

“I want a tank to shoot and kill all Katsaps!”

Vova was using a curse word that Ukrainians use for Russians, the best way he could describe an evil that even a sweet and obedient 4-year-old had the urge to kill.

According to linguists, the word likely came to us from the Arabic word ‘qassab,’ which literally translates to ‘butcher’ but is also used to denote a cruel person.

Had I shut my mouth, the boys never would have picked up that word.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused anger issues for one-third of Ukrainian kids, including my brothers…

After the paywall:

• How Russia exploits kids to reach its goals in Ukraine;

• How the war slowly changed Sasha’s brothers;

• What children can do to manage their anger during wartime.