Ukraine for the first time marks the Day for the Protection of Children on World Children’s Day. It is the date when the Declaration of the Rights of the Child and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child were adopted – documents that define the rights and safety every child must have.

Today, Russia deliberately directs its terror against Ukrainian children, violating their rights. Missile and drone strikes on kindergartens, schools, playgrounds, and homes are among the most horrific crimes – impossible to comprehend and impossible to forgive. 

Children in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine also suffer from Russia’s crimes, including deportation. Ukraine is doing everything possible to bring the abducted children home and to protect every child.

Ukrainian children have the right to a life without missiles, without air-raid alerts, without fear. The right to education, to health, to play, to creativity, to a home. And above all – the right to grow up in a peaceful and free country.