“He Would Run to the Cemetery at Night to Be with His Mom and Sit There”: The Story of 12-Year-Old Ivan from Oleshky Becomes Part of the Museum of Civilian Voices Founded by the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation

Ivan heard the gunshot with which a russian serviceman killed his mother and stepfather. That day, russian occupation forces came to their home in the seized city of Oleshky in the Kherson region. The boy was at home and heard the argument that broke out after the russians attempted to rape his mother. After this tragedy, Ivan was left a complete orphan. He entrusted his story to the Museum of Civilian Voices founded by the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation.

“Vanya heard everything. Then, when they left, Vanya ran outside and was the first to see this horror. I cannot imagine how difficult it must have been for a child. It was the moment when he lost his mother. A loved one. It was horrible,” explains Nataliia Rozhkova, a foster mother at a family-type orphanage. Today, 12-year-old Ivan lives under her care.

Ivan’s grandmother was unable to take the boy with her to Germany because she did not have Ukrainian guardianship documents. The social services then asked Nataliia to take the child in for a few days.

“After staying with us, Vanya wrote a statement himself saying that he did not want to go to Germany but wanted to stay here, with our family. That is how it all began. He had a family, and he began to feel that he was needed by someone,” Nataliia says.

The boy’s adjustment was difficult because of the loss and trauma he had experienced. For a long time, Ivan was withdrawn, avoided contact, and ran outside at night to be alone.

“It would be nighttime, and he would be gone. He would simply run into the forest. Nature calmed him down. He wanted to be alone, to process everything he had been through. Because at home, seven kilometers from here, he would run to the cemetery at night to be with his mom and sit there. That is how severe his stress was,” Nataliia explains.

Psychologists helped him overcome the consequences of the trauma, while sports activities also significantly improved the boy’s emotional state. There are currently seven children in Nataliia’s family-type children’s home, and they live together in a settlement built for internally displaced people in the Kyiv region. The family lost all their property in the occupied territory. Their homes in Oleshky were destroyed and flooded after the destruction of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant. They have nowhere to return to.

Nataliia admits that what hurts her most is that all the children have lost their homes. Their homes remain under occupation or have been destroyed, so when they begin their adult lives, they essentially have no home of their own to start from. That is why the woman’s greatest dream is for every child to have a home of their own in the future and feel safe.

“I already have four adult children. They are finishing their studies, and we do not know where they will go. For now, they live with me. I dreamed so much that we would live in our own homes, in Oleshky. The whole big family would get together: all the grandchildren, with their wives and husbands. It would have been so beautiful. But now everyone has been scattered,” the woman says.

Watch Ivan and Nataliia Rozhkova’s story here: https://bit.ly/4c2hx5m

The collection of the Museum of Civilian Voices founded by the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation already numbers more than 145,000 stories about the war. This is the largest collection in the world of testimonies from civilians affected by russia’s war against Ukraine.