To mark International Children’s Day on June 1 and International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression on June 4, ADC Memorial Brussels and the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group have prepared a publication on violations of the rights of Ukrainian children—victims of the aggressive war unleashed by Russia against Ukraine. 

Most of the war crimes against children are related to the violent actions of the Russian military: children are killed and injured during shelling and other military operations constantly carried out by Russian troops against the civilian population of Ukraine; during the war, homes, children’s institutions, and civilian infrastructure are destroyed, children are often forced to live in terrible conditions – without water, electricity, or heat; many do not receive a full-fledged education – not all schools are safe, and online studies are not possible everywhere due to power outages and interruption of mobile communications.

In the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, there are documented cases of sexualized violence against children, their exploitation, and use as hostages; teenagers accused of resisting the occupation authorities ended up in Russian prisons. A proven war crime of the Russian Federation is the removal of children from Ukraine without the consent of their legal representatives to Russia and Belarus, keeping them for a long time in institutions and transfer to foster families, and the deprivation of their Ukrainian identity, language, and ties with Ukraine. Ukrainian children living in the temporarily occupied territories as well as exported to the regions of Russia are subjected to massive militaristic propaganda, are involved in the activities of paramilitary children’s organizations; the Russian authorities are trying to use them in the war against Ukraine, their native country.

International organizations, governments of countries supporting Ukraine, and charitable initiatives of politicians should work to adopt an action plan to protect Ukrainian children, including creating opportunities to leave Russian Federation and return to Ukraine for those children who ended up in the Russian Federation or in the occupied territories; measures to stop the violence of the Russian military, who commit crimes against children in war zones and in the occupied territories; the immediate return, in a war-prisoner exchange, of those children (or young people who were children at the moment of their arrest) who are accused of resisting the occupation authorities and are being imprisoned in Russian pre-trial detention centers and prisons; it is necessary to achieve a complete cessation of the use of children for military purposes, whether it is the development of drone models, training in warfare, work in military factories; it is also necessary to completely eliminate the propaganda of militarism and chauvinism in the education and upbringing of children, and to give them the opportunity to study according to the program of Ukrainian schools.

Illustrations were created by a female artist L.A., who experienced the occupation in Eastern Ukraine during her youth

For the sound design, AI technologies were used

The publication is created in the framework of the project “Documenting and analysing international crimes committed by the Russia’s armed forces after 24.02.2022, helping victims of these crimes and informing on crimes” implemented by Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, Center for Civil Liberties and ADC Memorial Brussels, funded by the European Union.

Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the contracting authority can be held responsible for them.