Cruelty of teenagers: in Truskavets, a group of children abused a boy with a disability
The full-scale war that Ukraine is going through, it would seem, was supposed to change our ideas about compassion, humanity and mutual support. Over the years, we have learned to be close to those who lost their homes, help the army and support each other in the most difficult moments. But, unfortunately, the war did not make everyone kinder to those around them. Especially in relation to the weak and defenseless. The cruelty of teenagers, recorded recently in various cities of Ukraine, shows that the problem of bullying and violence in the children’s environment remains acute and even worsens.
Another shocking case happened in Truskavets. On the evening of March 19, a group of teenagers — four girls and one boy aged 11 and 12 — bullied an 18-year-old boy with disabilities. The incident happened around 20:00 on Mazepa Street in the resort town. According to the police of the Lviv region, all participants in the event are local residents. This is reported communication department of the police of Lviv region.
It is important that the teenagers did not just mock, but also filmed everything, after which they posted it on one of the social networks. Such actions only increase the indignation of the society – because it is not just about a children’s conflict, but about the deliberate humiliation of a person with a disability and the demonstration of this in front of the general public.
The police opened criminal proceedings under Part 2 of Article 296 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine — hooliganism committed by a group of persons. The sanction of this article provides for punishment – up to five years of restriction of liberty or imprisonment for a term of up to four years. A pre-trial investigation is currently underway. Law enforcement officers interview all participants of the event in the presence of parents and a psychologist. All the circumstances of the incident are also being established, it is being studied how exactly the bullying took place and which of the children posted the video on the Internet.
This case in Truskavets is far from the first and, unfortunately, not exceptional. Over the past year, Ukraine has been shaken by a number of similar stories, where the main actors were children and teenagers who demonstrated shocking cruelty to peers or even younger people.
In January 2025, in Bila Tserkva, a group of children — a 12-year-old girl and two 15- and 16-year-old boys — attacked another 12-year-old girl right in the park. The girl was brutally beaten, inflicting numerous blows.
In the Vinnytsia region, there was also a high-profile incident where a 12-year-old boy was beaten in front of the camera. And in the Kyiv region, a group of teenagers lured a boy into the basement and staged a lynching on him, carefully filming the abuse on the phone.
No less resonant was the story in May 2024 in Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv Oblast. There, three 14-, 15-, and 16-year-old girls who knew each other repeatedly beat a 12-year-old girl on the head and body right on the street, in the presence of other teenagers.
Each of these cases is not just shocking. He poses an important question to society: why do our children behave so cruelly? Why is it the norm for them not to help the weaker, but to humiliate, beat, film it and put it on the Internet for the sake of hype?
Psychologists and lawyers have repeatedly emphasized that the reason is not only education in the family or school. A huge role is played by the social environment in which children grow up, the availability of violent content in social networks, the lack of clear moral guidelines and real responsibility. However, in each specific case, not only children remain guilty. Adults are responsible for their behavior—parents who often ignore warning signs in their children’s behavior, schools that don’t always respond appropriately, and society at large that turns a blind eye to such stories until they hit the headlines.
Cruelty has no justification – neither by age, nor by emotions, nor by difficult life circumstances. And every such case should become a reason not just for a criminal case, but for a broad conversation about how we raise our children and what we allow them to do.
The abuse of a disabled boy in Truskavets is another reminder that indifference and impunity breed evil. And if society does not draw conclusions now, there will only be more such stories.
