Children are easy victims of a military conflict. It’s no different in Ukraine’s war-affected areas. Ever since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, the Internet has been flooded with pictures of children, both wounded and displaced, reinforcing the horrors of wars.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the Ukraine war has forced more than 4 million people to leave the country, half of them children. “As the number of children fleeing their homes continues to climb, we must remember that every single one of them needs protection, education, safety and support,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said in a statement on Wednesday.
According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, 1,179 civilians were killed, including 15 girls, 34 boys and 55 children. Among the 1,860 injured are 34 girls, 26 boys and 74 children.
Ukraine is accusing Russia of deliberately targeting civilians in its population centres, while the Russians say the Ukrainian armed forces and allied far-right paramilitaries are using civilians, even children, as human shields. As the war continues with allegations and counter-allegations, Ukraine’s children continue to bear the brunt with no respite in the offing.
Orphan children get settled on a train after fleeing the town of Polohy which has come under Russian control before evacuating on a train from Zaporizhzhia to western Ukraine on March 26, 2022 in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. Tens of thousands of people remain trapped in Mariupol, a port city that has faced weeks of heavy bombardment by Russian forces. Civilians from Mariupol and the surrounding areas have fled to evacuation points in towns like Zaporizhzhia in Ukrainian controlled territory before moving on to safer areas in the western part of the country
A woman with her children sits in an underground metro station used as bomb shelter in Kyiv on March 2, 2022. - On the seventh day of fighting in Ukraine Russia claims control on March 2, 2022 of the southern port city of Kherson, street battles rage in Ukraine's second-biggest city Kharkiv, and Kyiv braces for a feared Russian assault
Polish army and emergency services transfer vulnerable Ukrainian refugee children from a train which arrived from south east Ukraine, after fleeing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, at Przemysl Glowny train station in Przemysl, Poland, March 29, 2022
Children who fled the war in Ukraine learn how to play chess at the Youth Center dr. Henryk Jordan on March 30, 2022 in Krakow, Poland. The Polish government has said it may spend €24 billion this year hosting refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine, and is seeking more support from the European Union. With more than 2.34 million Ukrainian refugees, Poland is now the country with the second-largest foreign refugee population after Turkey
Dima, a three-year-old boy who was wounded during the shelling of Mariupol, lies in a bed in children's ward of the hospital, as Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, March 29, 2022
A volunteer care giver holds a boy, who was taken away from his parents, as he has breakfast in a state shelter for children in Lviv, Ukraine March 25, 2022. Picture taken March 25, 2022
People, mainly women and children, arrive at Przemysl on a train from Odesa in war-torn Ukraine on March 28, 2022 in Przemysl, Poland. The Polish government has said it may spend €24 billion this year hosting refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine, and is seeking more support from the European Union. With more than 2.2 million Ukrainian refugees, Poland is now the country with the second-largest foreign refugee population after Turkey
Children evacuate the city of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, during heavy shelling and bombing on March 5, 2022. - Ukraine and Russia agreed to create humanitarian corridors to evacuate civilians on March 3, 2022 in a second round of talks since Moscow invaded last week, a top Ukrainian official said
A mother holds her newborn baby in the bomb shelter of a maternity hospital on March 02, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Russian forces continued their advance on the Ukrainian capital for the seventh day as the country's invasion of its western neighbour goes on. Intense battles are also being waged over Ukraine's other major cities
A girl draws at a table set up in the bomb shelter at the Okhmadet Children's Hospital on March 01, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Russian forces continued their advance on the Ukrainian capital as the country’s invasion of its western neighbour entered its sixth day. Intense battles are also being waged over Ukraine’s other major cities
Published - April 03, 2022 01:11 pm IST
