Studies of childhood in Ukraine in conditions of military aggression

Ukrainian Institut of Research of Extremism conducted a thorough study “Children of war: a study of childhood problems in Ukraine in terms of military aggression”, which refers to the war and the problem of forming a new generation of children, internally displaced children, children in a war zone and the their safety on the temporarily occupied territory. Oleg Zarubynskyy, Director of the Institute, presented data on internally displaced children and children who are in territories outside the control of Ukraine.

“War never heeded the humanism factor. Therefore always leaves a large number of victims not only among combatants, but also among the civilian population. Including children. According to WHO, as for May 1, 2015, 68 children died because of war in the Donbas. At least four of them died at the time of the last ceasefire. 176 children were injured. In addition, as the result of the war in the Donbass were casualties among the children of other countries. On board of the Boeing 777 shot down by separatist combatants, on July 17, 2014, among the 298 dead were 80 children of all ages,” – noted in the study.

As for June 3, 2015, according to the State Emergency Service, there are 873,816 internally displaced persons recorded, among them 150,481 children (17.2%). Besides, it is known that 5000 orphans and children deprived of parental care, could not leave occupied territories of Donetsk and Lugansk regions for peaceful regions.

There is no complete information how many children have been orphaned by this time. According to the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, as for March 31, 2015,1086 children lost their parents due to their death in the ATO or as a result of injury, gained in the ATO area. However, it is impossible to know the exact number of children whose parents died or do not care about them at the uncontrolled territory of Donbas. No information from Crimea as well.

The full text of the study can be found here.