“The support of the community and close people, work, and faith in the future helped me learn to live in the new circumstances”
For the International Autism Awareness Day, we are presenting the “Not Invisible and Unbreakable. Stories about the lives and challenges of Ukrainian autistic children during the war” project. With the information support of INVAK.INFO, we are telling the stories of 12 families who have learned to live on after the tragic day of February 24, 2022. The families share their experiences and feelings, secrets of overcoming difficulties in Ukraine and abroad, and each family is united with an irrefutable belief in the soonest and most long-awaited Victory.
Maksym Brovchenko, a 13-year-old autistic teenager from Berdyansk, is a young artist and an aspiring writer. Maksym’s family has survived the occupation, endless moves, and attacks, but continues to overcome obstacles on Ukraine’s path to Victory.
February 24, 2022
“The morning of February 24 is a date that will remain in my memory forever. Maksym and I woke up at about five in the morning to two explosions near our grandmother’s house – we were visiting her at the time. Maksym ran to me and said: “It happened. The war has begun.” Fifteen minutes later, we heard another loud explosion, and no one doubted that Maksym was right. The fact is that since the summer of 2021, my son has been feeling the war looming over us. He was nervous and anxious, and kept having nightmares about the war. One day we were on a walk and went to a military store, where my son asked to buy an RPG. The seller showed him a model, but Maksym didn’t like the idea and asked if he could buy at least five hand grenades… I kept trying to calm him down in every way possible, but nothing worked. And a few days before the large-scale invasion, Maksym started drawing military themed art,” recalls Maksym’s mother, Oksana Brovchenko.
A few days later, the family found themselves under occupation. Like all Berdyansk residents, Oksana was looking for food and standing in long queues for the most necessities. Russians with weapons were walking the streets as if they were at home, so Maksym was constantly with his mother for safety reasons. The issue was that he always spoke the truth and what he thinks is right, regardless of a person’s status, situation, or circumstances. While this is usually funny and useful, in the context of hatred for the occupiers, it was outright dangerous. Once, the boy and his mother passed by four Russian soldiers, and Maksym asked them, “When are you all finally going to die?” Another time he was running through the streets of Berdyansk which was full of Russian soldiers, wrapped in the Ukrainian flag, and shouting: “Glory to Ukraine!”
His mother Oksana, realized that Maksym would not remain silent and that one day he would surely get into trouble, so they decided to evacuate. To prevent Maksym from telling the next occupier his very honest opinions, it was decided to put Maksym into a medication-induced sleep to pass all the checkpoints without incident. A plan was developed with a doctor, and the dose of the medication was calculated according to Maksym’s weight. Oksana gathered the necessary things and documents, and the family boarded a bus in the direction of Zaporizhzhya. The road was exhausting, and his mother was very worried because the medicine kicked in only a few minutes before the Russian checkpoint. He woke up during the check at the Ukrainian checkpoint, where he was encouraged by our Ukrainian guys: “Don’t worry, we are Ukrainians.”
“That’s how we arrived in Zaporizhzhya. Unfortunately, it soon became clear that we would have to flee from there as well. The occupiers were bombing and shelling the city so hard that it seemed no one would survive the mess. We came under a terrible bombardment, a rocket hit the building next door, and I got my arm injured. Six months later, I found out that it was not a simple scratch – I was carrying a piece of a Russian missile inside me all the time, which came out of me on the anniversary of the bombing of Zaporizhzhia. We headed to Kyiv, which greeted us with blackouts and constant rocket attacks. In the evenings, we listened to the news from the front on the radio and were excited about the success of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Then Maksym began to recover a little: his anxiety decreased, and he became as focused and calm as possible,” Oksana shares her memories.
Maksym continued to paint, selling his works at auctions, exhibitions, and workshops. He was able to raise hundreds of thousands of hryvnias, which he immediately donated to help the Ukrainian Armed Forces. His works were appreciated by the First Lady Olena Zelenska, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, Ihor Klymenko, and others, including the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, who presented the boy with an award for his volunteer work and contribution to supporting the army.
2025
Maksym Brovchenko is now 13 years old, and he and his mother live in Zaporizhzhia, where they returned to after the situation became less critical. Oksana says that her son has grown a lot in the three years of the merciless war.
“Unfortunately, premature maturation is an inevitable consequence of any war, and Maksym is no exception. My son has grown up both psychologically and physically.
For example, to avoid the sounds of explosions and air raids, he invented a ritual and made it a rule: as soon as the alarm goes off, my son goes into the hallway and puts on headphones. This helps him overcome his fear and keeps him believing in Victory coming as soon as possible.
Maksym has also stopped suffering from panic attacks, during which he could not breathe, his temperature would go through the roof, and he would become unconscious. He is so focused that he underwent serious training on the rules of behavior during shelling and learned how to lie down on the ground, cover himself, help others, and so on.
In addition, I observe changes in the tactile level. For example, while he used to suffer from any touch, now Maksym can calmly sit in crowded buses and pay no attention to anyone. I am sure that such changes are precisely related to the extreme military living conditions to which the child’s psyche had to get used to.”
Maksym will always have autism symptoms, such as meltdowns and sensory overload. Fortunately, despite the cruel circumstances he learned to adapt, love life and help others. Maksym also released his first book “Planet A”, which was recently translated into Czech. It is a wonderful tale about a planet of autistic people, and their arrival on Earth. It shows his vision of a society that is loving and tolerant of all living things. Maksym continues to paint and sell his works, organizes master classes, and recently joined a theatre group. He worked hard to play the lead role in Simon Stephens’ “The Mysterious Night Murder of a Dog”. The story is about the life of an autistic boy who conducts a detective investigation into the murder of a dog, and how society is unwilling to accept people with ASD.
Oksana started her musical career with a second-hand synthesizer and her first song “Angels,” which she composed and played herself, and formed the band “Situation.” Oksana was joined by her friend, who helped arrange the song and became one of the soloists. At first, they performed at Maksym’s events, and then they started getting invitations to perform at presentations, military hospitals, etc.
Maksym plans to continue to develop creatively and help the army achieve the Victory. The young fellow dreams of returning to his native Berdyansk, to his home and the sea:
“I have many plans for the future. I would like to revive the treasures of Ukrainian art destroyed by the Russians, to return what was stolen by the occupiers. It seems to me that if every Ukrainian artist donated at least one of their paintings to restore art museums, my wish would come true “at once.”
