16-year-old in Kherson, Ukraine.
Surviving russian drones and preparing for a freezing winter.
There is a strange disconnect in reading the interview answers of 16-year-old Ukrainian Veronika Kovalenko. I smile and share her excitement as she describes taking part in a filmmaking course in Kherson led by a renowned Czech director. She and other teenagers created a short film and then traveled to Prague to present it at a European film festival, excited and proud of what they had made.
But there is another side to Veronika’s story. She is stoic and mature for her age, as many Ukrainian teenagers have had to become, but life is particularly difficult because she lives in Kherson. Much of the film the teenagers created was shot inside a local bomb shelter, with explosions outside. Bomb shelters are now part of everyday life there. Veronika also knows how to apply a tourniquet to herself and others, thanks to Ukrainian Red Cross training for people living dangerously close to russian forces.
Veronika grew up helping with children’s programs at the library where her mother, WOW Woman Tetiana Sushkova, works. Tetiana instilled in her daughter a love of books, a deep curiosity and the joy of creating. Neither could have imagined that russian forces would invade and occupy their city for more than eight months in 2022. They endured the occupation together.
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I shudder when I imagine russian boots in this beautiful Ukrainian city, once known for sending its watermelons across Ukraine and Europe. Ukrainian forces liberated Kherson in November 2022, but the relief was short-lived. russian forces withdrew only a few kilometers away, across the Dnipro, and from there have attacked the city almost daily with artillery, rockets and drones, as well as guided aerial bombs and ballistic missiles.
People can no longer move freely through Kherson. They plan their routes and mentally note places where they can hide along the way because russian drone operators have been documented deliberately targeting civilians in what residents call a “human safari.” Another WOW Woman, reporter Zarina Zabrisky / Zarina Zabrisky, has extensively documented these attacks.
Because russia relentlessly attacks Ukraine’s critical energy infrastructure, Veronika and Tetiana fear the coming winter without reliable heat. They also fear autumn, when falling leaves remove some of the tree cover that offers protection from russian drone pilots. They may leave Kherson for the winter, but that brings another difficult question: where do they go? Veronika’s is another Ukrainian childhood cut short by the russian federation, another family forced to weigh safety and opportunity against the reality of becoming displaced in their own country.
russia’s invasion and violence have affected every Ukrainian, but Kherson’s approximately 280,000 prewar residents have endured a particularly brutal reality. Many fled. Many were killed during the occupation or in the attacks that followed. By summer 2026, roughly 60,000 people remained in the city. Tetiana and Veronika were two of them.
“Veronika will be leaving school in Grade 10 to enter college of arts,” Tetiana wrote to me. “The high school classes have thinned and studying even in the basement has become unsafe, since a mere walk to school can cost you your life. She received the highest score among applicants and will begin receiving a scholarship on September 1.”
No Ukrainian asked to be called “resilient.” Increasingly, the word seems to suggest that the world can continue to ignore Ukraine’s suffering and russian atrocities because Ukrainians have somehow learned to endure them. But I have no better word for my 16-year-old WOW Woman, who continues to learn, create and plan her future in one of the most dangerous cities in the world.
-Olga Shmaidenko, Founder WOW Woman.
Thank you for reading. And please stand with Ukraine!
