Peace Lesson as part of the 5th Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen

Snapshots from Ukraine:
Untold Stories of Teenagers

Peace begins with every child’s sense of safety. Only when children can learn, interact, and dream without fear does a society truly have a future. The Peace Lesson we created for the Summit is not just another class on the timetable.

It’s a reminder that peace starts in each person’s heart, with their everyday actions. We teach children not only to live without war, but also to respect one another and understand different cultures. We invite teachers around the world to show their students that the future depends above all on the next generation’s ability to build bridges instead of walls.

Olena Zelenska

First Lady of Ukraine, Founder of the Summit
This lesson is an invitation to teenagers across the globe to see Ukraine through the eyes of their peers. Not only through daily news, but through vivid, emotional stories of those who go to school in the metro, sit exams under air-raid sirens, have lost their homes, been deported — yet continue to dream, explore, volunteer, and build the future.

Yes, we speak about the war, but not only about it. We speak about life that goes on in spite of the war. About children who grew up too soon but did not lose their humanity. About those who keep dreaming and acting for their country and for a peaceful future for the whole world.

Oksen Lisovyi

Minister of Education and Science of Ukraine

There are
3.74 million schoolchildren in Ukraine

Of them, 1.3 million are teenagers aged 13–16.

600 000

children have access only to online learning due to the proximity of active hostilities. Most of them have never seen their teachers and classmates in person.
19 546

children were deported or forcibly transferred to Russia.
1,3 Million

children live in temporarily occupied territories.
630

children have been killed by Russia over 3.5 years
of the full-scale invasion.
1 960

have been wounded to varying degrees.
These figures grow every day.
82%

of teenagers express optimism
about their own future.
62%

of teenagers feel happy in their cities.
90%

of young people aged 13–19 say they want to contribute
to rebuilding Ukraine.
67,5%

feel they personally contribute to the country’s development.

Research sources:
Olena Zelenska Foundation, “FUTURE INDEX,” 2025
Urban Movement survey “The City Has Me,” 2024
Dobrodii Club study “Teenagers and Their Lives During the War: Moods, Values, Future,” 2023

It is these teenagers who hold the future not only of Ukraine, but of the entire world.

That’s why, in creating this lesson, we wanted to show Ukraine, the experience of living through war, and visions of the future through their eyes.
Their stories are honest, sincere, and poignant. Different — yet united by shared daily routines. By shared pain.
These three stories are at the core of a lesson created by the team of the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine together with Ukrainian teachers, within the Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen.

Diana and her brothers and sisters were forcibly deported to Russia in early 2022.

It took three years to bring them back. The girl speaks about her experience of deportation and the journey home, about her dreams and plans.

This is the story of Nazarii and Oryna from Zaporizhzhia — a city 30 kilometers from the front line that suffers daily shelling.

They were able to regain access to education only after an underground school opened in Zaporizhzhia — the only place where it is safe to study.

On 31 July 2025, a 16-year-old boy, Roman, his mother, and his brother were killed by a Russian missile strike on a residential building in Kyiv.

Roman was a member of the UActive project team and, together with his classmates, actively volunteered and worked to develop his settlement. In the video, his friends share how they are living through this loss.