The boy’s face is wet with tears. He looks down, no longer resisting, while classmates circle him without mercy. One by one they step forward and strike him, as others laugh and one bystander records the assault on a phone.
Such videos have been appearing more often in Ukrainian Telegram channels, on TikTok and other social platforms for months. For Nadiya Leshik, an education official, they reflect a growing but underestimated problem in schools across the country.
“At the start of the war, we were all preoccupied with other things,” she said. “But since then, we’ve seen a steady rise in the number of cases of violence.”
Leshik attributes the trend to the war’s heavy toll on young people. The sound of explosions and the constant threat of attack affect children mentally, she explained, and rates of anxiety and depression among teenagers have risen sharply.
A study by the Kyiv-based Mindset research institute found that three-quarters of Ukrainian students showed symptoms of stress.
The researchers noted that teenagers respond to stress in different ways: many withdraw, while others become aggressive. Rather than accepting victimhood, some teens try to restore their self-worth by putting others down — sometimes violently.
“Some of them have experienced trauma themselves and now want to act like alpha males at the expense of others,” said 14-year-old David, a pupil at High School 45 in Kyiv. His 15-year-old classmate Jana, who was bullied after fleeing her village and enrolling at a new school, added: “Somehow, people find it easier now to insult others.” She said the harassment led her to stop attending classes for a time.
Authorities are trying to respond. Police teams regularly visit High School 45 to teach students about air-raid warnings, landmine safety and other wartime precautions — and to discuss bullying.
“These days, it’s mostly cyberbullying,” said police officer Yana Vitalievna. “Psychological violence takes place in the digital realm.”
After years of war and remote schooling, many Ukrainian children carry smartphones and use apps to warn about attacks. Those tools also create channels through which harmful content spreads. Leshik warned that Russian actors are exploiting young people’s vulnerability online.
“They are conducting massive propaganda campaigns on social media and using methods to deliberately make children and teenagers aggressive,” she said.
The Ukrainian government has warned that Russian intelligence operatives are active in Telegram groups popular with youth. Using language and imagery aimed at young people, they try to sow discord, turn adolescents against each other and incite violent behavior.
Leshik said schools cannot tackle the problem alone and urged parents to be vigilant for unusually aggressive behavior. Families who have been displaced or who have lost relatives may be less able to provide the attention children need. But she stressed that a generation growing up with war trauma cannot be allowed to normalize bullying.
“If a teenager hits another person in a group of young people and others watch or even film the incident,” she said, “it’s very clear who the perpetrator is and who the victim is.”
This article was translated from German.
