Expendable children: Ukraine's young amid Russia’s invasion

What has war looked like for the children of Ukraine?

For many, it has meant sheltering in basements and subway stations while Russian forces attack cities and street fights rage.

A girl catches snowflakes as she waits with others to board a train to Poland, at Lviv railway station, Sunday, Feb. 27, 2022, in Lviv, west Ukraine. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

For others, it has meant a scramble to escape, leaving homes and fathers, taking trains and buses, or walking for miles with their families in hopes of crossing into a safer country.

A Ukrainian mother holds her baby in a car, as the family is stuck in traffic on their way to the Medyka-Shehyni border crossing between Ukraine and Poland while fleeing the conflict in their country, near the Ukrainian village of Tvirzha, some 20km from the border, on February 28, 2022.

Some children have been killed or injured in the conflict. A 6-year-old girl in the southern city of Mariupol was hit during shelling. She was raced to the hospital in an ambulance but died as her parents, nurses and doctors wept.

Babies born into a world of tumult: At the Okhmadet children's hospital in the middle of the capital, tiny twin newborn brothers were swaddled in blankets on the basement floor.

Across the country, in Mariupol, Kateryna Suharokova gave birth to a son, Makar, in the basement of a maternity hospital converted into a medical ward and used as a bomb shelter.

Children too young to understand the reasons and history of the conflict with Russia still saw it come home. A 3-year-old boy in Kyiv stared quietly at the open casket at the funeral of a Ukrainian soldier.

Serafim, 3, looks at the body of Ukrainian Army captain Anton Sydorov, 35, killed in eastern Ukraine, during his funeral, in Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 22, 2022.

And at the cancer hospital, young patients in the basement held up signs in English for a visiting photographer: “Stop War.”

Across Ukraine and in refugee shelters across the borders, parents have struggled to comfort their children. Mothers rock them on subway platforms or carry them for miles in the cold.

A girl paints on a notebook next to her mother as they shelter in the Kyiv subway, using it as a bomb shelter, Ukraine, Feb. 26, 2022.

They find diversions for nights spent underground – books, toys, phones, pets. At one border station in Poland, refugees were met by boxes of donated clothes and toys.

Children who fled the conflict from neighboring Ukraine play on the floor of an event hall in a hotel offering shelter in Siret, Romania, Feb. 26, 2022.

A woman and her children lie on the floor in the improvised bomb shelter in a sports center, which can accommodate up to 2000 people, in Mariupol, Ukraine, Feb. 27, 2022.

A child collects toys near a clothes donation point as refugees fleeing conflict in Ukraine arrive at the Medyka border crossing in Poland, Feb. 28, 2022.

Passengers wait for a train to Poland inside Lviv railway station, west Ukraine, Feb. 27, 2022,

A couple enters a shelter with a baby in a stroller during Russian shelling outside Mariupol, Ukraine, Feb. 24, 2022.

A woman holds her baby inside a bus as they leave Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 24, 2022.

A refugee child fleeing the conflict from neighboring Ukraine sits in a bus at the Romanian-Ukrainian border, in Siret, Romania, Feb. 28, 2022.

A Ukrainian child looks through the window of a car stuck in traffic, as her family drives toward the Medyka-Shehyni border crossing between Ukraine and Poland while fleeing the conflict in their country, near the Ukrainian village of Tvirzha, some 20 kilometers from the border, Feb. 28, 2022.

Children look out of a train transporting hundreds of people fleeing from the Russian invasion of Ukraine after arriving at the train station in Przemysl, Poland, Feb. 28, 2022.

A woman with her two children fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine stays at the Primary School No.14 that has been converted to provide shelter, in Przemysl, Poland, Feb. 28, 2022.

An oncology patient rests on a couch next to his mother, in a basement using it as a bomb shelter, while the sirens sound announcing new attacks, at the Okhmadet children's hospital in central Kyiv, Ukraine, Feb. 28, 2022.

Refugees children fleeing from Ukraine wait for transport at Nyugati station, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in Budapest, Hungary, Feb. 28, 2022.

People sleep in the improvised bomb shelter in a sports center, which can accommodate up to 2000 people, in Mariupol, Ukraine, Feb. 27, 2022.