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Boredom, loneliness plague Ukrainian youth near front line

Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, left, plays in the water while swimming with her grandparents, Olena, and Andreii, right, at a lake in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. With cities largely emptied after hundreds of thousands have evacuated to safety, the young people that remain face alienation, loneliness and boredom as unlikely yet painful counterpoints to the fear and violence Moscow has unleashed on Ukraine. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, center, sits next to her grandmother, Olena, for a picnic at a lake in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. "I don't have anyone to hang out with. I sit with the phone all day," Anastasiia said from the bank of the lake. "My friends left and my life has changed. It became worse due to this war." (AP Photo/David Goldman) Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, center, stands along the water's edge for a picnic with her grandparents, Olena, left, and Andreii, at a lake in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. "All our plans for summer are ruined but we are trying hard to make her life as colorful as possible," said Olena. "She is always with us, because you never know when and where there might be bombings. War does not bring happiness to anybody." (AP Photo/David Goldman) Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, sits in the water while visiting a lake with her grandparents in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. Anastasiia said she can't remember the last time she played with someone her own age, but that she's made some new friends through the games she plays online. But it's no substitute for the excursions to the nearby salty lake she used to enjoy with her playmates, she said. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, plays in the water while swimming with her grandfather, Andreii, rear, at a lake in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. The mass displacement of Ukrainians, overwhelmingly women and children, has upended countless childhoods, not only for those having to start a new life after seeking safety elsewhere, but also for the thousands who have stayed behind. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, pets her cat as she heads to the lake with her grandparents, Olena, right, and Andreii, rear, in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. Olena, said the family is waiting to see what will happen in Sloviansk before making a decision on whether to leave with Anastasiia. The front line is only 7 miles (12 kilometers) away and their city is considered a strategic target by Russia's military. (AP Photo/David Goldman) The bike belonging to Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, sits untouched as she pets her dog outside the home she shares with her grandparents in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. With no one her age left in her neighborhood and school classes taking place only online since Russia's invasion in February, games and social media on her smartphone have taken the place of the walks and bike rides she once enjoyed with the friends who have since fled to safety. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Roman Kovalenko, 19, left, walks away after visiting his friend, Oleksandr Pruzhyna, 18, at his apartment complex for their weekly get together in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 12, 2022. The two became close this winter when Russia's invasion began and now they are the only friends that each other have left in the city. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Youth gather to play cards at a coffee shop before curfew in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. Pokrovsk, a town that's relative distance from the front line, allows for more socializing among young people as those in front line towns face boredom and isolation since most of their peers have fled. (AP Photo/David Goldman) The lights in just a few windows illuminate an otherwise dark apartment block as Roman Kovalenko, 19, left, visits his friend, Oleksandr Pruzhyna, 18, right, in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 12, 2022. "It's a completely different feeling when you go outside. There is almost no one on the streets, I have the feeling of being in an apocalypse," said Pruzhyna, who lost his job at a barber shop after the invasion, and now spends most of his time at home playing computer games. "I feel like everything I was going to do became impossible, everything collapsed in an instant." (AP Photo/David Goldman) Sofia Mariia Bondar, 16, looks at her phone while sitting in the clothing shop where her mother works in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022. A piano player and singer who wants to study art at university after she finishes her final year of high school, Sofia Mariia said she was often bored since all her friends have left. Her mother, Viktoriia, said that with the danger of shelling always present and soldiers plying the streets, her daughter is no longer allowed to go out alone, and spends most of her time by her side. (AP Photo/David Goldman) A child waits for his mother outside one of the few shops still open in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Saturday, Aug. 6, 2022. Of the roughly 275,000 children aged 17 or younger in the Donetsk region before Russia's invasion, around 40,000 remain, the province's regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko told The Associated Press in an interview. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Rodion Kucherian, 14, takes a break from scooting in an empty skate park to look at his phone in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022. Kucherian said that before the war, he and at least ten of his friends would be doing tricks in the bustling park alongside many other kids from nearby. But now his only connection to all of his friends, who have fled to countries like Poland and Germany, is on social media. (AP Photo/David Goldman) A wooden statue of children holding hands stands in an empty park in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Friday, Aug. 12, 2022. According to Ukraine's prosecutor general, 361 children have been killed in Ukraine since Russia's Feb. 24 invasion and 711 have been injured. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, looks at her phone in her bedroom in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. Anastasiia's retreat into digital technology to cope with the isolation and stress of the war that rages on the front line only 7 miles (12 kilometers) away is an increasingly common phenomenon among young people in Ukraine's embattled Donetsk region. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, hugs her grandmother, Olena, at their home in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. "All our plans for summer are ruined but we are trying hard to make her life as colorful as possible," said Olena. "She is always with us, because you never know when and where there might be bombings. War does not bring happiness to anybody." (AP Photo/David Goldman) A necklace, half of a broken heart engraved with the word "Love," is worn by Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, at her home in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. Her best friend, Yeva, used to live on her street, but has evacuated with her family to western Ukraine. She misses her but they still share a special connection. Yeva, she said, wears the other half of the silver pendant. "I never take it off, and Yeva doesn't either," she said. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Fish nets hang in the window as Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, cooks in the home she shares with her grandparents in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. Anastasiia said she can't remember the last time she played with someone her own age, but that she's made some new friends through the games she plays online. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Olena Aleksandrova, looks toward the thunder of nearby artillery booms from the garden of her home in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. Olena, said the family is waiting to see what will happen in Sloviansk before making a decision on whether to leave with her 12-year-old granddaughter. The front line is only 7 miles (12 kilometers) away and their city is considered a strategic target by Russia's military. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, draws a smiley face in the fabric of a blanket at the home she shares with her grandparents in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. With no one her age left in her neighborhood and school classes taking place only online since Russia's invasion in February, video games and social media have taken the place of the walks and bike rides she once enjoyed with the friends who have since fled west to safety. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Anastasiia Aleksandrova, 12, right, sits with her grandmother, Olena, at their home in Sloviansk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, Monday, Aug. 8, 2022. With cities largely emptied after hundreds of thousands have evacuated to safety, the young people that remain face alienation, loneliness and boredom as unlikely yet painful counterpoints to the fear and violence Moscow has unleashed on Ukraine. (AP Photo/David Goldman)