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This 10-year-old is the only child left in the Ukrainian village

This 10-year-old is the only child left in the Ukrainian village

Tymofiy Seidov is the only child left in Kutuzivka - a village near the city of Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine. He has not seen any other children since April 30, when most of the people staying there were evacuated.

The eight-year-old spends most of his time drawing on a small desk, dimly lit by a small LED lamp. The toddler shares the basement with 23 other people, including his mother, aunt and grandmother.

This 10-year-old is the only child left in the Ukrainian village

Tanks appear a lot in his photos. But today, in the dark, he is working on some Dalek-like monsters, which he says reminds him of a cartoon he had seen on YouTube before the war. He also draws happier, sometimes, scenes of houses under the sun and rainbows in the sky.

This 10-year-old is the only child left in the Ukrainian village

"I just think about surviving," says Tymofiy's mother

The family has lived in the basement of a two-story garden and a medical center in Kutuzivk since the war broke out in Ukraine on February 24.

This 10-year-old is the only child left in the Ukrainian village

Before the war, the village had 1500 inhabitants. After Russian troops occupied the village, the population dropped to 50. Even when Ukrainian soldiers took Kutuzivk back, some in the village had nowhere to go but underground - including Tymofiy and his family.


This 10-year-old is the only child left in the Ukrainian village
Tymofiy and his aunt Yana Sotnikova mark the days on a calendar to remember how long they stayed in the basement.

This 10-year-old is the only child left in the Ukrainian village

This 10-year-old is the only child left in the Ukrainian village