Category: Photoreports

These Ukrainian Mothers Had Children During the War. Here’s What They Said

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion, women in Ukraine have continued to give birth, raise children, and find beauty in the midst of war. We spoke to five of them, here are their stories:

May 10, 2026 13:51 Updated May 10, 2026 14:09

4 min read

Authors: Lucile Brizard
Reporter

Varvara Levchenko, 38 years old, and her daughter Radmila, 11 months.

“We waited a long time for this little girl, and we knew there would be no better moment, even with the war. People always ask what the meaning of life is; I never knew how to answer before, but now I do. She is my meaning.”

“When there is a strike on Kyiv, I experience it in a completely different way now that I have a child. It feels as if my heart is tearing apart; something goes cold in my stomach. Before, we had started to push the fear aside, but now we run to the corridor and my husband covers us both as we crouch together. You understand it won’t really help, but fear feels completely different now.”

The evening after my daughter was born, Kyiv experienced a massive missile strike. My daughter’s first night on earth was spent in a bomb shelter. Honestly, I didn’t know if I would see her the next day.
Varvara Levchenko

Oryna Kuleba, 30, and her daughter Radmila, 12 days old.

“In the early hours of February 3rd, 2026, a Shahed drone hit our building. It was the coldest night of the winter—minus 25 degrees—and two apartments were destroyed. Because I was pregnant, I ended up getting hypothermia. I became seriously ill and spent a week on a drip from stress and exhaustion.”

“When there is war in your country, you have only two choices: either you keep living – working, creating, having children – or you surrender to despair. You keep going, because otherwise nothing would have meaning.”

Yana Zelenetska, 34, and her son Danylo, 3 years old.

I got pregnant in summer 2022 and gave birth in February 2023, at seven months. Danylo has never known life without war.
Yana Zelenetska

“Why do I stay in Ukraine? At first, I weighed what was scarier: losing my stability, my husband, my country, and my work, or the risk of staying. I have spent years building my life in Kyiv to reach this point—my job, my friends, my home. This location makes me feel grounded; I am on my own soil, with my own people. For four years, I have asked myself: 'Am I staying or am I leaving? And every day, I am still staying.”

“In my story, being a mother means having no choice except to be strong. Danylo had a twin brother, they were born prematurely. His twin passed away—I lost a child, I was in shock, and yet I remained strong. Even when missile strikes took out the energy grid and I had to carry Danylo up to the 18th floor, it was fine. You cannot imagine being weak when a child is looking at you with big eyes, asking: 'Okay, mom, what are we doing now? '”

Alina Prisich and her daughter Ivanka, 2 years old.

“When the war started in 2014, we fled, it was terrifying, there were stray shots. Eventually I finished school and came to Kyiv. Ten years later, the full-scale invasion began. I immediately had a panic attack. In Luhansk it had felt like some kind of adventure—I was a child, I didn’t understand. But the second time, I was so frightened I couldn’t sleep or eat for three days.”

“I could leave. But leaving is its own ordeal—here everything is familiar, there are friends, everything you know. And it would be the second time in my life I’ve fled because of Russia. It’s strange that for half your life you have to run, but by staying you’re also exposing yourself and your child to danger. You have to either accept it or change something. I hope I won’t regret it.”

The feeling that life is beautiful—that has appeared with Ivanka. Despite the war, despite everything, a child gives you the feeling that you are living.
Alina Prisich

Lina Volodkina and her daughter Alice, 10 years old.

“The most important thing is to maintain inner peace and be a pillar of support for my child. Right now, my main task as a mother is to create a sense of safety and a normal childhood as much as possible, even when the air raid sirens are sounding all around us.”

“Together, we are learning to appreciate the joy in the small things of everyday life, because that is exactly what gives both of us the strength to hold on.”