Ukrainian Children are Suffering due to Russian Aggression

According to the results of 2022, Ukraine was included in the UN report on children in armed conflict for the first time, thus becoming one of the countries that are most dangerous for children.

This was stated by the UN Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, Virginia Gamba, during an open debate in New York, USA.

As part of the report, the UN covered five geographical regions and 26 conflicts in its investigations.

The largest number of violations involving children were confirmed in Congo, Israel, Palestine, Somalia, the Syrian Arab Republic, Afghanistan, Yemen and Ukraine.

During the discussion on children and armed conflict, Gamba also reported that last year a UN working group confirmed 27,180 grave violations against 18,890 children.

"We must never forget that behind every confirmed violation is a child's life, with its own individual story. Last year, 18,890 children were affected, but their stories have not yet been told," said Gamba.

Overall, in 2023, 8,630 children were killed or maimed worldwide, 7,622 children were used for military purposes and 3,985 children were abducted.

In most cases, children were injured as a result of air strikes, explosive weapons and direct fighting between parties to the conflict.

In many cases, children were victims of explosive devices.
At the same time, the report mentioned 1,165 children, almost all of them girls, who were raped, forced into marriage, sexual slavery or sexual violence.

"High levels of rape and sexual violence against children were also recorded, despite the fact that such cases are often underreported," Gamba said.

The report also emphasises that the use of schools and hospitals for military purposes is a complex problem. Thus, last year, UN representatives recorded and verified 1,163 attacks on schools and 647 attacks on hospitals, which is 112% more than in 2021.

According to official data from the Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, 485 children were killed and more than a thousand injured during Russia's war in Ukraine. Another 19,400 Ukrainian children were forcibly deported to Russia.

However, these figures are not definitive, as verification of crimes against children is difficult in armed conflict zones.

For example, the Ukrainian authorities do not have access to the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol, where, according to various estimates, between 20,000 and 87,000 civilians, including children, may have been killed.

Last month, the UN added the armed forces of the Russian Federation to the "list of shame" for gross violations of children's rights during the Russian aggression in Ukraine.