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Vitia takes part in a workshop on making a traditional Ukrainian Christmas decoration called a didukh. A didukh, crafted from rye, wheat or oats, symbolizes ancestors, prosperity and the harvest, and is traditionally placed in a position of honor in the home during the Christmas season.
Misha, a 28-year-old resident of Zaklad (Branch of the Hruszkiv Psychoneurological Residential Institution), takes part in a St. Nicholas Day performance at the institution in Mykolayiv, Lviv region, Ukraine, on Dec. 5, 2025. He was relocated here from a care institution in Kharkiv during the war.
Nastia, 29, sits with her newborn son at the maternity hospital in Chernihiv, Ukraine, on Dec. 3, 2025. She and her husband, Yevhenii, who live near Chernihiv, welcomed their second child earlier that day. Their two-year-old son, Ihor, is waiting for them at home.
Vitia Shcherbak, 27, an orphan from Kharkiv and a resident of Zaklad (a branch of the Hruszkiv Psychoneurological Residential Institution), looks at his drawings. He was transferred to the facility in September 2022 after spending a few months sheltering in a basement in Kharkiv during the early months of the full-scale war. Although Vitia does not speak, he communicates fluently through nonverbal means and has a strong passion for automobiles, a recurring theme in his artwork.
A place to hide
On Thursday, February 24, 2022, at 3:45 a.m., Vladimir Putin delivered a televised address announcing the start of a "special military operation" to defend the self-proclaimed republics in eastern Ukraine. Russian forces crossed Ukraine's borders and began advancing into its territory. As a result of these actions, thousands of Ukrainians were forced to leave their homes. Many of them are elderly or disabled people who had to seek shelter in nursing homes and refugee centers in the western part of the country.