Ukraine’s Underground Generation
Addressing the isolation of young people has become an urgent priority in eastern Ukraine.
By Robert F. Worth
Photographs by Jedrzej Nowicki
October 19, 2025, 7 AM ET
In a town called Staryi Saltiv, in northeastern Ukraine, many buildings lie in ruins after years of war, but only one has been demolished twice: the district school. Russian missiles leveled it in early 2022. The town gradually raised the money not just to reconstruct it but to enlarge and improve it, adding new facilities for disabled children. Then, just days after the work was completed in early May, the Russians sent five Shahed drones into it, leaving it a burned-out ruin.
“We don’t know why,” Iryna Glazunova, the town’s director of education and culture, told me. “I think the overall point is to destroy Ukraine.”....
....Russian drones have made a clear sky into a source of terror for Ukrainian young people. Most have taken instruction only by Zoom since the full-scale Russian invasion began, in 2022. They study in apartments they share with their parents, with frequent interruptions, such as when the power goes out or when the air-raid sirens send them fleeing to shelters. Many are so isolated and anxious that they are unable to imagine a future.
The plight of Ukraine’s young people is a direct consequence of Russia’s effort to eradicate their national identity. In a little less than four years, Russia has damaged or destroyed some 3,500 schools in an apparent campaign to...
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