Amid war, Ukraine’s children suffer trauma-induced mutism

Oleksandra Zinchenko, a Kyiv-based speech therapist and co-founder of the Association of Speech Therapists in Ukraine, said cases have surged sharply since the war began.

“We’ve seen at least a 35 percent increase in patients in our clinic,” she said. “Of the roughly 430 children on our patient list, at least 300 show some form of speech delay or regression linked to anxiety and trauma. I am currently treating five cases of mutism, children who either do not speak at all or speak only in very limited settings.”

During a visit to Zinchenko’s clinic in Kyiv in October, just a day after a large-scale drone and missile attack on the capital, the reception area was crowded with parents and young children.

“I’ve had five calls just this morning from parents asking how to calm their kids,” she said. “This happens after every major attack. Children show extremely high levels of anxiety in the days that follow.”

According to a study by Save the Children in Ukraine, many children are developing speech disorders, and uncontrollable twitching as the psychological toll of the war deepens. The nonprofit’s case-management data from January to June 2024 showed 43 percent of these children suffer from psychosocial distress.

The scale of the mental-health crisis facing Ukrainian children is staggering. According to the United Nations, more than 3,100 children have been killed or injured since Russia’s full-scale invasion began. UNICEF estimates that 1.5 million children in Ukraine are at risk of depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other war-related mental health disorders. At least one in five children has experienced the death of a loved one, whether a parent, sibling, or close friend, its survey found last year.

In frontline cities such as Odesa, Kherson, and Kharkiv and in the capital Kyiv, all of which continue to come under intense Russian attack even as US-led peace talks unfold, parents described children losing their ability to speak, either completely or partially. For some children, the silence came overnight after surviving a missile strike, witnessing the death of a family member, or seeing their neighborhood reduced to rubble. Others fell quiet gradually, their voices fading as they internalized fear as a means of survival.

Amilie’s mother, Liliana Yurievna, remembers the moment she believes her daughter’s voice began to disappear. The family’s village in Kherson in southern Ukraine came under Russian occupation in March 2022. Amilie was 2 years old.

“One day, Russian soldiers stormed into our home and dragged my husband and his father outside for questioning. And Amilie screamed for me,” Yurievna told the Globe.

When her father and grandfather returned unharmed hours later, Amilie would not look at them. Not long after, she broke out in severe eczema with raw red patches across her arms, legs, and face, which doctors diagnosed as a stress reaction.

As shelling intensified, the family hid for weeks in a basement while soldiers looted homes above. They moved from house to house and by the time the family escaped to Odesa in late 2023, Amilie had fallen almost completely silent.

Five-year-old Amilie sat quietly coloring in her apartment in Odesa, in southern Ukraine. She began to lose her ability to speak almost two years ago after witnessing her father and grandfather being dragged out by Russian soldiers.Anjana Sankar

“She used to speak in short, clear sentences like ‘I’m hungry,’ ‘I want my doll.’ But even stopped saying ‘Mama.’ It was like the words died in her mouth,” said the mother.

Even after nearly two years of speech therapy, progress is limited. “I wish I had gotten out of Kherson much earlier. I could not and my daughter has to pay the price,” she said.

Yevheniia Malyavko, Amilie’s speech therapist in Odesa, said the girl has psychogenic mutism, a rare trauma-induced condition in which a person suddenly loses the ability to speak.

“It is not because of physical damage to the brain or vocal cords, but because of severe emotional or psychological shock,” she said. Some children also develop selective mutism, which is consistent failure in speaking in specific situations, she said. The condition is most commonly seen in children and adolescents exposed to extreme trauma or anxiety.

Ukraine does not track cases of child speech issues, but experts drawing from their case numbers and anecdotal evidence said there is a marked increase in children with speech regression triggered by trauma.

“I am seeing an increasing number of children with mutism in the age group 3 to 14. It is not that they are refusing to speak. They cannot,” said Malyavko. Stuttering and delay in speech, she said, is also becoming more common among children. “Anxiety and stress caused by the war and constant threat of air attacks is the trigger in many cases.”

Liubov Boryslavivna, a neurologist who treats children with developmental and speech delays in Kharkiv, said she has seen in recent years at least a 10 percent increase in cases of mutism. Such cases are more prevalent among children from occupied territories or frontline regions, she said.

“For instance, today alone, out of the eight children I examined, a 4-year-old boy was completely nonverbal, and a 10-year-old girl was struggling with severe stuttering,” she said.

Boryslavivna recounted one of the most harrowing cases of a 5-year-old boy who witnessed Russian soldiers strangle and kill his mother in occupied Kherson.

“The trauma shattered him,” she said. “It affected not only his speech but his entire development including behavioral disturbances.”

“A traumatic incident can shut down a child’s ability to communicate,” she added. “The nervous system becomes so overwhelmed that speech simply switches off.”

Boryslavivna said treatment depends on the child’s age. “We can use therapy through play or art for younger children, and counseling or cognitive-behavioural therapy for older ones,” she said. Speech therapy helps rebuild language skills. In very severe cases, medication may be needed.

Recovery requires stable routines, emotional support at home, and access to therapists, resources many families have lost during the war, Boryslavivna said.

Alexandria, a 16-year-old from Odesa, the southern port city under near-constant Russian attack, is another girl who has withdrawn to silence. Since August, she has completely stopped speaking, according to her mother, Ludmila. She asked that her full name not be used to protect her daughter’s identity.

Alexandria had stepped out for a short walk one evening, but rushed home when air-raid sirens wailed for incoming Russian drones. “She could not utter a word,” her mother recalled.

At first, Ludmila thought her daughter was playing a prank. “But when it continued for hours, I realized something was wrong,” she said. Days earlier, Alexandria had been trapped in an elevator for 30 minutes, an episode that triggered a panic attack.

“The therapist told us both the incidents were final triggers,” Ludmila said. “But this had been building for months.”

In Kyiv, Tanya Dytyniuk, a 38-year-old mother, said two of her three children have experienced trauma-related speech regression. “This war is waged against children who have nothing to do with it,” she said.

Her youngest daughter, Stephane, 4, fell silent in April 2025. “She was so talkative,” Dytyniuk recalled. “Then almost overnight she stopped speaking, whenever she stepped outside the home.” As the pattern continued for weeks, the family sought therapy, and months later Stephane slowly regained her speech.

Her older son Misha, now 8 and mildly autistic, also struggled. Nonverbal until 4 1/2, he was in therapy but it was disrupted when the war began. “We restarted speech therapy in 2022, and gradually he improved,” Dytyniuk said.

Her 6-year-old son, Evan, she added, copes by singing patriotic songs at night.

Therapist Zinchenko said Misha spoke only a few words when they met. “He can speak in sentences now,” she said, “but he often talks about missiles and drones and asks whether he will die.”

Keeping children insulated from war is impossible, Dytyniuk said. “Misha sees destroyed buildings when we drive. He hears explosions at night. Sometimes air alerts go off when he’s in kindergarten. The war is constant in their lives.”

For children who left Ukraine during the full-scale invasion, the trauma followed them even years later. Bohdana Sidliaruk, a psychologist in Kyiv who offers remote consultation to families who have left the country, said many children suffer from PTSD symptoms, anxiety, and severe sleep disorders. “Even distance cannot protect them from the trauma,” she said.

Even if the war ends, Sidliaruk said, the psychological cost that children endure will outlast the fighting. “This is going to stay with us forever,” she said.