"Kyiv Bats on the rubble of houses. How children and teenagers help people after arrivals

In February 2024, two friends, Polina and Lyuba, created the Kyiv Bats volunteer organization, which in a year and a half has become a large community for young people. Not only students, but also middle and high school students, dismantle rubble, remove debris, cover broken windows with OSB boards, and support the victims. LIGA.net talked to Kyiv Bats and explains how volunteering and full-scale war have changed the lives of children and teenagers.

Vidradnyi Avenue

Dozens of distraught people stand in line outside the volunteer tent and tell each other how badly their apartment was damaged by the shelling. Some people gesture a lot, showing the damage or the force of the explosion with their hands, others stand silently alone, and a few hug each other or clap each other encouragingly. A girl in a black vest with a yellow Kyiv Bats logo listens to an old woman in her seventies, encourages her and writes down the damage in a table to send volunteers to her later.

On the night of July 30-31, 2025, Russia launched more than 300 drones and eight Iskander-K cruise missiles into Ukraine, with Kyiv as the main target. The Solomianskyi district, where Vidradnyi Avenue is located, and the neighboring Sviatoshynskyi district suffered the most that night. On the morning of July 31, Kyiv Bats had already set up headquarters near the affected building and were receiving the first calls from residents. Today is the third day after the arrival, and the third day the Bats have been working here.

Opposite the headquarters is house A, next to it is house B, which suffered the most (for security reasons) LIGA.net does not provide the exact address). In the past, children used to play in the yard between them, cars were parked and trees grew. Now an excavator is making loud noise. It is loading mountains of debris into a truck that used to be part of a balcony, window, furniture, or small personal items. Every time the truck passes by the volunteer headquarters, a girl in a black vest shouts into a loudspeaker: "Watch out for the truck, make way!"

Building B has most of its roof missing, the walls are covered in black soot, and one of the apartments on the top fourth floor has no walls left. Several charred iron cans in the yard resemble cars. It is not difficult for anyone who wants to join the cleanup to find the right house.

Buildings a few blocks away from the crash site have their windows boarded up with OSB, and those closer to the crash site have brick on their facades. Pieces of glass and other debris are lying on the sidewalk, swept up in piles by residents and utility workers. The entire Vidradny Avenue is covered with small glass.

Bella, Danya and Timothy

The girl with the loudspeaker is shouting loudly again, but this time to greet one of the regular volunteers. Her name is Bella, and she has been with Kyiv Bats for three months. She is 18, graduated from high school this year and entered college to study window, interior and building design. Later she will study at the university to become an architect.

Bella first came to volunteer with her mother after another shelling of her neighborhood. That morning, she received a call from her friend Polina, who founded Kyiv Bats, asking her to bring something to eat. Since then, Bella has been coming to every cleanup, distributing work to volunteers, buying materials, giving out tools, and cleaning up debris.

"For a long time, the war and shelling did not affect me directly. But when the windows in my house were blown out and my friends were injured, then..." Bella interrupts, folds her arms and shouts that a truck is coming, "Then I felt a sense of pain and realized that the war affects everyone. And I wanted to help."

The story of 19-year-old Dani, another Bats curator, is similar. In April 2025, a ballistic missile hit 150 meters from his home. He came to the site to help and met the Bats. During clean-ups, he usually works with older volunteers in heavily damaged apartments where there is a threat of walls or floors collapsing. During our conversation, a woman comes up to him and says that a large piece of glass is stuck on a tree, but it can be pushed off her balcony. Danya uses his radio to send one of the guys to her.

During the day, volunteers talk to several hundred people. It is hard for Bella and Dana. Upon arrival, many of the victims are in shock, behave aggressively and may shout at those who want to help them. In addition, working in the rubble is a great responsibility for the lives of the volunteers, especially the children, whom Bella affectionately calls her own.

One of them, a boy wearing a mask and construction gloves, is sweeping up small debris near the house. Tymofiy is nine years old and in the fifth grade. On the day of his arrival, his friends who live next door to House B called him and asked him to help clean up. Today, Timofey came for the second time and is waiting for his friends to let him pick up trash in one of the apartments.

The boy tells me that cleaning with friends is easy, but it's not easy for him alone: he's lonely, bored, and a little embarrassed. He doesn't have his own phone, so he asks for mine to call his friend. He says that his mom won't let him, because he has to clean up his house first.

"You see, I won't be able to go for a walk today," Timofey says and quickly corrects himself, "I mean, to clean.

"I am brave and not afraid of anything, so I came to help people."

There are several dozen children and teenagers at the cleanup, all wearing construction goggles, orange helmets, masks, and work gloves. Before giving them a job, Bella and the other volunteers call their parents to make sure they know about the cleanup. Each young volunteer is told the safety rules and what to do. Those who are misbehaving are immediately asked to go home. Bella says it's really easy to manage children. The main thing is to identify a mini-leader in their group whom they listen to and pass tasks through them.

The children are given only light work in safe apartments where there is little or no damage and no threat of collapse. They usually sweep up glass and small debris. They work in small groups, supervised by an adult volunteer. Older "Bats" communicate with them as if they were friends: they often ask if everything is okay and let them play a little. For example, they let them shout into the loudspeaker that a car is coming.

Among the regular young volunteers of Kyiv Bats are two eleven-year-old boys and a small group of teenagers aged 14-15 who always come together. For them, working on the rubble is a new way to spend time together and feel useful at the same time.

Mostly local children work on Vidradnyi Avenue. Bella, who lives nearby, has known them or their families for a long time. All of them have a similar story: the shelling damaged their homes or friends' houses, and they wanted to help.

Several of them were influenced by their older friends, whom they look up to. For example, two friends Polina and Vika were brought to Kyiv Bats by their friend and regular volunteer Maksym. The girls are 14 years old and went to the eighth grade together. The first time they cleaned Vika's damaged apartment after the shelling. And now, during summer vacations, they often come to clean up with Maxim.

"It's a little hard for me mentally because I was in a similar situation myself. But Polina cheers me up, so I don't dwell on it," says Vika.

The girls take measurements from the broken windows and wait for other volunteers, mostly older boys and men, to cut a large OSB board into smaller pieces with a grinder. This area is fenced off with red and white striped tape. One of the trees has a sign that says "sawmill" taped to it, and next to it is a notice about a missing cat that escaped during the shelling. Polina says that carrying OSB boards to the residents' apartments is a bit difficult, but overall she and Vika have fun.

In the shade next to them, 16-year-old Anna, who came with her 11-year-old brother Yaroslav and 17-year-old friend Khrystyna, rests. They live in Borshchahivka and found out about the cleanup in one of the telegram channels.

The girl invites them to go up to the apartment on the fourth floor of building A, where they are cleaning. The front door to the one-room apartment is skewed and won't close, and there are large bags filled with construction waste lying next to it. At the beginning of the invasion, the owners had gone abroad, so the police will seal the apartment when the volunteers finish cleaning.

The room is dark and all the windows are boarded up. Two women are sweeping in the narrow corridor, and nine-year-old Valera is in the bedroom. When asked why he came to the cleanup, he answers without stopping sweeping: "Because people need help. I am brave and not afraid of anything, so I came." He learned about the event from his friends, but he works alone.

"They don't want to walk. They don't want to see it all. They are afraid," he explains.

"Kyiv Bats

Polina, a co-founder of Kyiv Bats, is a cadet at a military school with the call sign "Rudik." She does not disclose her age, only that she is under eighteen. She doesn't want to be treated with prejudice, and she doesn't want other volunteers to be treated with prejudice. Polina began to take an interest in military affairs in middle school, and in the fifth grade she joined a shooting club. After graduation, she planned to study to become a military medic, but everything changed in 2022 when her father volunteered for the army.

"I have a lot of military friends. When you see them dying there, you want to take revenge and fight for Ukraine. I see no other way out but war," she explains.

In January 2024, Polina and her friend Liuba volunteered for the first time in a house that had been damaged by shelling. Shortly afterwards, they learned about an incident near the Teremky metro station that was not handled by any volunteer organization and decided to coordinate people themselves. They found volunteers among their friends and through telegram channels in the neighborhood. That's how Kyiv Bats was born. Lyuba came up with the name.

"We work day and night. And after work, we are as black as bats, so we will be," Polina says with a smile.

"Kyiv Bats always work according to the same algorithm. Immediately upon arrival, Polina contacts the SES rescuers and the district administration to find out the address. After receiving permission from them, several coordinators go to the affected house, assess the scope of work and agree on cooperation with other volunteer organizations if they also work at the site.

Usually, the first day is an organizational one: volunteers collect requests from the victims and set up the headquarters. At the same time, they buy all the necessary materials at the expense of charitable foundations that support Kyiv Bats. On the second day, the volunteers start closing requests and work until late in the evening. The cleanup ends on the day when Kyiv Bats has helped all the people who have applied to them. If high-rise buildings are affected, volunteers usually close more than 400 requests.

The girl recalls that during her first cleaning, she did not know how to organize her work effectively or where to get materials. Now she considers herself a "universal fighter" who can do absolutely everything: cover windows with OSB boards, use a grinder and a drill, buy enough parts and solve any problems.

While the volunteers were working on Vidradnyi Avenue, Polina went to military training in Cherkasy Oblast with a friend with the call sign "Leva." They first met at the funeral of a mutual friend of a soldier on Maidan Nezalezhnosti, and after several meetings Polina invited her to join the Kyiv Bats coordinators. Volunteering has brought them so close that Polina calls "Lev" her closest person. Their photo together is on the lock screen of her smartphone.

"Polina considers Kyiv Bats to be a community for young people who are ready to "move on." Her friend Bella has her own term – "a big bat family".

"Volunteering for me is like a sisterhood or a brotherhood," says Polina, tugging on a coat of arms pendant around her neck. "It's impossible not to become friends when you work together all day long. This is how our community is built."

Most often, the backbone of the team – seventeen curators – comes together to organize the work upon arrival. Polina and Bella say that these people have been tested by volunteering, so you can always rely on them. In their free time, they walked animals from shelters as a team, received training in tactical medicine, and helped the military, for example, preparing energy bars for them. But this summer, due to the large number of arrivals, they only see each other when they are working on the rubble.

"Volunteering taught me how to give back"

The Kyiv Bats community has changed many of the volunteers, Polina believes. They have become more conscious: they donate more, refuse Russian content and music, switch to the Ukrainian language, and become interested in Ukrainian history and culture. It is important for her to convey these values to people, especially to teenagers and children.

Bella also notices strong changes in herself. She is very emotional, but she has learned to put her feelings on the back burner, because otherwise she would not be able to handle the number of victims and the devastation she sees on a regular basis. However, from time to time she is still moved to tears. For example, when she was thanked by a man who lost his wife and child to shelling. With the money he gave Bella, Kyiv Bats bought tools and parts to repair the needs of the victims in that house.

"It's really hard for me. At times when you are overwhelmed with work and trying to get everything done, it is harder to control your emotions. All the regret, pain and horror overwhelm me. Sometimes I work with tears in my eyes," says Bella.

Polina became more serious, improved her leadership skills and learned to "turn off emotions." For example, pity for the victims or anger over quarrels with other coordinators that occur due to the heavy workload and influx of people. They talk through serious conflicts and various mistakes at meetings that take place every few months. This is the only way to organize work and act in stressful situations.

"I know for sure that I will be able to run several large projects in parallel. I'm ready for anything, because now we need to be able to export," she adds.