Introduction
Ambiguous loss - characterised by the physical absence but psychological presence of the lost person - is a particular challenge for children, as it disrupts identity, restricts lived time, and relationships with the world. During Russia's war against Ukraine, many children face the disappearance of one or both parents, a form of loss that resists "closure" and other conventional models of grief.
Purpose
This study aims to reveal the underlying structure of ambiguous loss experience and explore how general aspects of the loss are embodied and embedded in the case under investigation.
Method
The research used a qualitative approach to the studied phenomenon: interpretive phenomenological analysis. This involves two: a phenomenological description of the participants' experiences and the researcher's interpretation of these experiences. The data were collected by semi-structured interviews with eight children aged 10-16 who experienced the disappearance of one or both parents due to the war.
Results
The experience of ambiguous loss is summarized in three main categories. Each of these categories, in turn, contains several subordinate ones:
1. The presence of the absent (painful reminiscences; repulsive radiation of the lost person's presence; attractive radiation of the lost person's presence)
2. Alienation of the world (alienation of the objective world; alienation of social relations; alienation of the actual course of time)
3. Identity crisis (searching for a new self; loss as a basis of self-awareness


Conclusions


The findings challenge stage-based and closure-oriented models of grief, emphasizing the non-linear, embodied, and relational 'nature' of children's experience of ambiguous loss. Ambiguous loss disrupts children's sense of time, continuity, and meaning, producing affective ambivalence, depressive alienation, and the coexistence of parallel timelines of life with and without the lost parent.