Ukrainian boy Yegor Kravtsov has seen things that no-one should see — particularly when they're eight years of age.
Now nine, Yegor wrote a diary chronicling his experience living for 96 days through one of the worst battles of the war between Russia and Ukraine — the Battle of Mariupol.
The diary is full of powerful reflections and reporting with drawings to accompany it.
We've spent an afternoon with Yegor, his mother Elena, and his sister Veronika at their new home in Burshtyn, western Ukraine.
It's away from the worst of the war — which is mainly in the east of Ukraine — but few people or places in Ukraine are completely spared the impacts of the war started in February last year by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"This place is better but still there are problems," Elena says.
"This apartment is near a power station and some nights you can hear the Russian missiles trying to hit the station. We have not escaped the war completely."
'It helped me to forget'
After he has a vigorous session riding around this charming, rural village on his scooter, Yegor and I sit in the sun in a park to talk about the diary.
The writing has both the simplicity and power of a child's writing — a raw, unvarnished account of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
"I am eight, my sister is 15, my mum is 38," Yegor begins.
As the diary — and the war — go on, the daily entries become more grim – such as after a Russian missile hit the family's house, causing the roof to collapse.
"I have an injury on my back and ripped-out skin, my sister has a head injury and my mother has ripped-out skin on her arm and a hole in her leg."
Yegor says he began writing the diary out of boredom but then found that it helped him to survive the grimness of daily life – when there was no electricity, little food and water and death all around his neighbourhood.
"It helped me to forget," he says. "I forgot about everything outside."
That "outside" was some of the worst of this war, which is entering its 15th month with no signs of ending. In fact, it is more likely to escalate if anything.
Yegor writes: "My two dogs have died and my neighbour next door has died."
His grandfather was badly injured in the attack that wounded Yegor's back. And because of the fighting, the family could not get him to medical treatment. Over several days, he bled to death.
The grandfather had sometimes quipped to his wife that when he died he did not want a fancy funeral – simply to be buried in the backyard. A Russian invasion would probably not have been the circumstances that the grandfather imagined for his funeral, but he got his wish — he was buried in the garden as war raged around the family home.
Yegor's diary gives insights into the trauma that this war is taking on children. According to the advocacy group Save the Children, more than four children a day are killed or injured in Ukraine because of the war. For survivors, the war is having a devastating physiological impact.
"The war in Ukraine, like all wars, is a child protection and child rights crisis," UNICEF deputy executive director Omar Abdi said.
Memories of home
The hometown of Yegor and his family, Mariupol, is still under Russian control. President Vladimir Putin toured the region last month, visiting sites of some of the most brutal attacks.
Today, Yegor says when he thinks of Mariupol: "I only remember that everything was burnt, we had pieces of shells outside, and the city was burnt."
I ask Elena what she thinks when she sees Mr Putin on television.
"I would like him to suffer, not just to die," she says. "I want him to suffer for a long time so that he can live through what we and everyone else has gone through."
Elena says the fact the family made it through the ordeal is due in large part to Yegor and Veronika.
"Thanks to them we survived," she says. "I realised that I needed to live because of them, to keep them alive.
"In the very first days, I tried to make up stories that they (the sounds of explosions) were fireworks and things but they told me, 'Mum, we are grown-ups, we know there are shootings outside.'
"My children had to grow up quickly."
As we sit chatting at the kitchen table, Elena points out something in Yegor's diary.
"The last drawing in his diary is a nuclear bomb falling on Putin's head."
I ask Yegor why he concluded his diary with a nuclear bomb dropping on Putin. "Everyone was angry with him. I was just angry."
And why is Putin smiling as the bomb is about to hit him? "Because he's crazy," he says.
Finally, I ask Yegor if there's anything he'd like to say to Australian children about his experience and this war. He gives two answers – the first reflects the trauma he's been through: "It's better that they don't know about it."
But then he pauses, and adds: "I wish the children in Australia good luck and I think that they should follow their dreams."
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