Russia Targets Children’s Welfare

A recent United Nations statistic about child abuse reveals another Russian premeditated violation of an internationally recognized principle.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) stated on April 7 that more than 200,000 Ukrainian children – about 25% of the population in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions of Ukraine – are severely affected by Russia’s armed invasion. Consequently, they require urgent and sustained psychosocial support to address their traumatic experiences.

That’s two hundred thousand. Not a few, or a dozen or a couple of hundred. This incredible number of traumatized children is part of the 1.7 million internally displaced Ukrainians due to Moscow’s latest imperialistic campaign against Ukraine. More than 70 children have been killed since the start of the Russo-Ukraine War of 2014-17.

“The world has forgotten about this invisible crisis in eastern Ukraine, but hundreds of thousands of children are paying a heavy price, one that could last a lifetime without adequate support,” observed UNICEF Ukraine Representative Giovanna Barberis. She emphasized the urgent need for funding to reach these traumatized children – not to mention qualified medical attention.

These children live within 15 kilometers of each side of the “contact-line” that divides the areas controlled by Ukrainian soldiers and Russian terrorists, where fighting is most intense.

In the fall of 2015, the UN member-states, including Ukraine, the US and Russia, adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals that are expected to make life on this planet better for everyone. Included among the 17 principles is No. 16, which addresses the fate of children.

“Various forms of violence against children are pervasive, including discipline that relies on physical punishment and psychological aggression. In all but 7 of 73 countries and areas with available survey data from 2005 to 2015, more than half of children between the ages of 1 and 14 were subjected to some form of psychological aggression and/or physical punishment at home,” it states while calling on governments to end abuse, exploitation, trafficking, torture and all forms of violence against children.

This is yet another crime against humanity coldheartedly committed by Russia within eyesight of the United Nations, its member-states, UNICEF and other agencies that have been established to protect children.

Barberis said the children live in constant fear and uncertainty due to sporadic shelling, unpredictable fighting and dangers from landmines and other unexploded ordinance. Many of them risk their safety to get an education because schools have been targeted by Russian invaders. Seven schools were damaged during the most recent escalation of violence in February and March, and more than 740 schools, or one in five, in eastern Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed since the war began in 2014, the UN said.

Furthermore, parents, teachers, school directors and psychologists continue to report striking behavior changes in children as young as three years old. Symptoms include severe anxiety, bed-wetting, nightmares, aggressive behavior and withdrawing from families and communities.

In appealing for $31.2 million to support these children and their families, Barberis said, “Children should not have to live with the emotional scars from a conflict they had no part in creating. Additional support is needed now so that young people in Donetsk and Luhansk can grow into healthy adults and rebuild their communities.”

Russia’s abuse of child welfare extends beyond Donbas. The Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group reported that Russian child abuse is also visible in occupied Crimea.

“On the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Crimea, at least 30 Crimean Tatars and other Ukrainians are imprisoned on politically motivated charges and others are facing trial for saying that Russia must leave Crimea.  69 children are growing up without fathers who have been arrested, or abducted and murdered.  The above alone would be compelling reason for rejecting any deals with Russia or removal of sanctions before Crimea is returned to Ukraine.  There are many others,” the human rights organization noted.

“There are at present 69 children whose fathers have been arrested and taken away on fabricated charges. Many of them have themselves been traumatized when armed and masked men burst into their home and took their father away in handcuffs.

“The children often wait in the court building, hoping to see their father if he is brought to the court for detention hearings. It is known that some children have been terrorized by FSB (Russian federal police) officers turning up and, for example, telling them that their father will face years in prison.”

Meanwhile, in a blood-curdling act of Russian cynicism, the occupiers have used children as propaganda tools: “A choreographed performance with children dancing about with machine guns was perhaps the most shocking part of the state-organized festivities in Russian-occupied Crimea, marking the third anniversary of Russia’s annexation.”

In a recent tweet on SDG 16, Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, observed frustratedly: “Target 16.2 SDGs calls on governments to end abuse, exploitation, trafficking, torture and all forms of violence against children. Time to act.”

Indeed, with a rising tide of Russian crimes against humanity, the international community must act to restore at least a semblance of global law and order and respect for morality and human rights. As it has done many times in the past, the free world should single-mindedly mobilize its efforts to rid the world of this law-breaking menace.

The legal and moral mechanisms are in place for such a crusade about liberty, human rights, Russian aggression, child welfare, peace, stability and security.

Ambassador Volodymyr Yelchenko, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN, at the signing ceremony of the Paris Accords on sustainability and Agenda 2030 about a year ago, reminded the world about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the devastation it is creating: “The Russian military invasion in Eastern Ukraine had affected negatively natural resources and biodiversity through habitat destruction and fragmentation, increased pollution of land and water. Despite all challenges we are facing, Ukraine remains firmly committed to its international obligations.”

The SDGs deal with more than climate change and global warming. The 17 principles give freedom-loving NGOs in the UN system and around the world, the Permanent Missions of the former captive nations and their allies, as well as concurring stakeholders the opportunity to initiate a conversation about creating a global partnership that would foster and preserve sustainable freedom, liberty, democracy, human rights, stability and peace for future generations

They must also sanction, condemn, reject and isolate Russia for its criminal belligerence so that future generations know that the free world had tried to protect civilization’s most vulnerable segment  – children.