Since 2014, Ukraine has suffered serious human losses due to Russian aggression and the occupation of part of its territories. This was reported in an interview with the Radio Free Europe project “Crimea. Realities” by Mykola Kuleba, head of the charity organization Save Ukraine.
This is reported by Kyiv24
Scale of Child Population Loss
According to Kuleba, over the past 11 years, Ukraine has lost half of its child population due to occupation and military actions. He noted that about 20% of them remain in occupied territories such as Donbas and Crimea, as well as in newly captured areas. “This is almost 1.6 million children that we have lost due to occupation. That is 20% of the child population right there. Another 30% are spread across the world, almost 30%, around 25%, a little more,” he emphasized.
Kuleba stressed that the Russian authorities deliberately aimed to devastate Ukrainian territories to destroy the country’s future.
Children Abducted and Displaced
According to official data, during the war, over 20,000 Ukrainian children found themselves in occupied territories or in Russia. The Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, suggested that Russian forces illegally transported about 150,000 children out of Ukraine. The figure of “several hundred thousand” was mentioned by the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Children’s Rights, Daria Gerasimchuk, who believes that it concerns 200,000 to 300,000 children.
At the time of publication, the Ukrainian authorities had managed to return 1,227 children from Russia and temporarily occupied territories. This was reported by the President’s wife, Olena Zelenska.
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian children’s ombudswoman Maria Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of committing war crimes, including forced deportations and displacements of populations, including children, from the occupied territories of Ukraine.