How the war affected children`s life in Ukraine

The Russian aggression against Ukraine has brought irreversible changes to the lives of Ukrainian children. For most of them, life will never be the same. Many of them left their hometowns with their families and settled down in different, safer parts of Ukraine, some of them left the country, and unfortunately, some of them were unlawfully deported to Russia, suffered during Russian attacks, and even killed. Which caused a significant demographic impact on the situation in the country.

Since the beginning of the full-scale war, 2.1 million Ukrainian children left Ukraine, 1.4 million are currently living in EU countries. It is not clear how many of them left Ukraine for good. But as this war continues, there are fewer chances that parents will return home with their children. However many Ukrainian children continue to study in Ukrainian schools remotely. It gives hope that they will retain their Ukrainian identity and language.

The tendency of Ukrainians to leave the country remains. In the recent outflow, more than 300 thousand school-age children left Ukraine, which indicated a record number. Predominantly boys of the age of 16-17 whose parents are being concerned that the war will protract and the draft age will be decreased. Also, it was facilitated by the increasingly difficult economic situation in the country and social discouragement.

Abductions and deportation of Ukrainian children

During the invasion, Russia commits a number of serious war crimes, one of them is forcible children deporation to Russian territory or territories under Russian control. Rusians are granting them Russian citizenship, and forcibly adopting them into Russian families and cuting children from all connections with their relatives in Ukraine, doing everything to erase their Ukrainian identitand and change their destiny.

The exact number of children that were unlawfully moved from Ukraine is unclear. Russia claims that they have moved more than 700 thousand children out of Ukraine. But Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets finds this number seriously exaggerated. The ombudsman assumes that in total Russia illegally removed about 150,000 children from Ukraine. His colleague Parliamentary Commissioner for Children's Rights Daria Gerasimchuk supposes a different number - 200-300 thousand.

Ukraine is trying to identify children illegally deported by Russia. So far, it has been possible to establish the names of 19,000 of them - the list with their names was recently handed over to the International Committee of the Red Cross. They have the authority to visit them and find out about the conditions of keeping children.

The process of returning Ukrainian children home is quite time-consuming and laborious.

Today only 736 of them managed to return back to Ukraine.

Russia targets and kills Ukrainian children

Russian forces incessantly conduct drone and missile attacks targeting civilian infrastructure, resulting in injuries and casualties among the population. Everytime it happens there are children who suffer. 1523 children were injured of various degrees of severity and 570 children were killed so far.

Children were most affected in the following regions: Donetsk region - 578, Kharkiv region - 409, Dnipropetrovsk region - 165, Kherson region - 170, Kyiv region - 133, Zaporizhia region - 130

The most recent cynical attack deliberately aimed against children took place on July 8 2024 when Russian missile hit the hospital "Okhmatdyt" in Kyiv - the biggest childrens hospital of Ukraine. 7 children were injured and one child deceased.

Such attacks have become a grim routine in Ukraine, posing a constant danger to children.

Due to unpredictable developments of the war the Government ought to expedite already existing mechanisms to protect children and create new ones. Children represent the future of the nation, a future now gravely endangered.