Local residents and volunteers are cleaning up debris in an apartment building that was heavily damaged during a massive Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine, on 10 January, 2024. Photo: Maxym Marusenko / NurPhoto / AFP
Tomorrow marks the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a war many thought would not last more than a few weeks.
More than six million people have fled the country and another four million were displaced.
The toll was also affecting children and an estimated three million were in need of support.
World Vision's Ukraine response director Chris Palusky told World Watch that the needs of children ranged from basic food to mental health support.
"We're addressing the physical needs, so yes, we are getting jackets for kids, we are making sure that they have warm places to live in, we are making sure that they have food," he said.
"But that's for today, we also want to look at the tomorrow ... that's why the education has been so important and also the mental health care."
He saw pictures children drew when they first came to a World Vision child family space in Kyiv, where there were counsellors.
"The kids were drawing pictures of their homes with bombs going into them and people being killed, I mean, they were violent pictures.
"And then they were showing me pictures of, at that point in time when I visited, and they were showing me happy houses," he said.
"They were showing me houses with dogs and families together and the sky was blue and there were no jets in the skies or drones."
Palusky said it showed that counselling and the ability for kids to process was extremely important.
'Please, don't forget about Ukraine'
But when asked about whether he believed the war would end soon, he was not hopeful.
"I don't see it ending anytime soon. It's very alarming and we hope and pray that the crisis ends soon ... the kids in this crisis are the ones who are really taking the brunt of this.
"We've been doing studies, looking at their mental health with their physical well-being and it continues to go down."
He believed that people in Kyiv seemed to be in a "constant state of shock".
Palusky said a person could walk down the street and almost feel normal but then an alarm would go off, jets were launched and they had to go into a bomb shelter.
"People are walking on the street and I don't want to say they're numb to it. But this has become every day life.
"I just encourage people, please, don't forget about Ukraine and get involved with some organisation that's doing something to help out kids or families in Ukraine because there's such a need."
