ABSTRACT
This article explores how Ukrainian refugee adolescents in Romania think and speak about death and loss amid war and displacement. While contemporary Western societies display an unprecedented visibility of death, they continue to exclude children from genuine conversations about mortality, maintaining a protective silence. Recent global crises, especially the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have pierced this silence, making death an immediate presence in children’s everyday lives. Using a qualitative, participatory design, the study draws on focus groups, participant observation, and interviews with adolescents aged 12–17. The interview guide was co-developed with participants to ensure cultural sensitivity and emotional safety, reflecting a child-centred and ethically reflexive approach. Findings reveal that war and forced migration make death both pervasive and unspeakable. Participants describe an acute awareness of mortality shaped by violence, guilt, and the moral tension between safety and solidarity. Death is imagined less as a natural event than as an intrusion—violent, political, and collective. Engaging in conversations about death does not intensify fear; rather, it fosters empathy and reinforces interpersonal connections, promoting self-reflection, resilience, and emotional empowerment. The study argues for integrating death education—honest, age-appropriate dialogue about mortality—into learning contexts. Recognising children as competent meaning-makers reframes protection as communication, not avoidance. Listening to their voices helps educators and practitioners understand how young people negotiate finitude, trauma, and care. Children’s words remind us that confronting death together is an act of language, solidarity, and ethical imagination.