Viktoria Kramarenko
Founder and Director of the “Wings of Victory” Charitable Foundation
On Sunday, December 21, a poignant event took place at the “Saint Sophia of Kyiv” reserve, where silence spoke louder than words—a memorial for Ukrainian child athletes killed by Russia.
For these children, Christmas will never come again. They will no longer feel the warmth of their mothers’ hands or their fathers’ embraces. They could have become stars in sports, but now they are stars in the sky. Their lives were cut short by Russia—a cruel terrorist organization that cynically pretends to be a state.
The names of these children were inscribed on icons created by renowned Ukrainian artists Oleksandr Klymenko and Sonya Atlantova as part of the project “Icons on Weapon Boxes.”
Within the hallowed walls of Saint Sophia, a prayer service echoed. Parents stood nearby—those for whom the words “after” and “next” have lost all meaning. Relatives stood, now burdened with the emptiness of unspeakable loss. Veterans stood—those who have faced death many times, yet today tears trembled in their eyes.
This event was not about art; it was about humanity. It was not a ritual; it was a shared pain that unites more strongly than any words.
The participation of the Mykola Lysenko Children’s Choir was particularly significant, along with the personal presence of Mykola Lysenko Jr. His voice, powerful, pure, and yet fractured, rose under the arches of Sofia, ringing in the bells of silence, becoming a toll of memory as he solemnly recited the names of the murdered children, one by one, without pomp but with unbearable dignity.
Each name resonated like a heartbeat:
- Mark Matiash-Myrnyi
- Artem Mardziavko
- Karina Bakhur
- Kyrylo Kulyk
- Matviy Marchenko
- Oleksiy Petrenko
- Kateryna Lysenko
- Maksym Symanyuk
- Anastasia Symanyuk
- Denys Melnyk
- Volodymyr Rudakov
- Romana Myasoyedova
- Trokhym Bychko
- Nazar Zuy
- Vira Biryukova
- Arina Shnabska
- Viktoriya Ivashko
- Maria Lebid
- Dmytro Yevdochenko
- Alina Perehudova
- Artem Pryimenko
- Kateryna Dyachenko
Russia kills, maims, loots, and systematically destroys the Ukrainian gene pool, tearing away the future before it has a chance to bloom.
As of December 2025, 676 children have died, and over 2,293 have been injured as a result of russia’s full-scale invasion—and this is only based on the official data from the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine. Yet, no statistic can measure the void left in the hearts, homes, and future of the entire country.
We remember each name. And as long as we remember, they are with us.
P.S.
Every murdered child is a deliberate crime, a targeted strike against the future of Ukraine. Every stolen childhood is evidence of genocide that is ongoing right now. It continues because the world allows this war to exist. Each official statement of “deep concern” justifies deaths, and silence becomes a tacit consent, if not complicity.
The names of the innocent children remain with us as an accusation, a verdict, and a cry that the world must not only hear but also act upon.
