Children in Ukraine are growing up under Russian bombs. Many have been forcibly deported. Can India be their saviour?
“Mom, was there a war in Ukraine, when you were small?” my middle son asked me recently. He has just turned six. Given that we recently marked 1,000 days of the full-scale war, this is almost half of his life. For me as a mother, these talks about war with our children are the most emotionally exhausting. When I was their age I knew about the big war from the stories of my grandparents, for whom it stole their youth. But these were stories, not the sound of explosions and air alerts or funerals of loved ones killed in the war. Now Russia’s war against Ukraine steals childhood from my children.
According to official statistics, since the start of the full-scale invasion 659 Ukrainian kids have been killed, another 1,747 injured. Over recent months, almost every day we hear about children killed by Russian missiles or bombs. Just the other day an entire family – mother and three kids, of whom the youngest was just 2 months – was killed in Kryvyi Rih. Only the father survived. Thirteen thousand children have lost their parents due to the war.
According to official statistics, since the start of the full-scale invasion 659 Ukrainian kids have been killed, another 1,747 injured. Over recent months, almost every day we hear about children killed by Russian missiles or bombs. Just the other day an entire family – mother and three kids, of whom the youngest was just 2 months – was killed in Kryvyi Rih. Only the father survived. Thirteen thousand children have lost their parents due to the war.