Date: June 4

Time: 10:00

Location: Media Center Ukraine, Kyiv

The International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression is marked annually on June 4. This commemorative date was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1982 to draw attention to the violence and aggression children face around the world. Innocent children continue to suffer from physical, psychological, and sexual abuse. Today, we speak of Ukrainian children who, for more than eleven years, have been victims of war, occupation, and repression resulting from the Russian Federation’s armed aggression.

Purpose of the briefing:
To draw public, media, and international attention to the situation of Ukrainian children affected by war, occupation, militarization, and repression under the Russian occupying regime. The briefing will highlight specific violations of children’s rights, tell the stories of families impacted by the war, and address the long-term consequences of Russian aggression on Ukraine’s next generation.

Discussion topics:

• Children in occupation: The situation of children from the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia regions, and Crimea; restrictions on freedom of movement, lack of access to quality education, ongoing humanitarian crises; abductions, forced passport issuing, psychological pressure, and deportations.
• Children of political prisoners and repressed families: Emotional and social consequences of the arrest/imprisonment of parents; stories of Crimean Tatar families; the role of civil society in supporting such families.
• Militarization and indoctrination in Crimea: Modification of educational curricula in favor of Russian propaganda; militarization of schooling and the functioning of organizations such as “Yunarmiya”; Russian military propaganda in schools and the erasure of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar national identity; the imposition of enemy imagery; the psychological impact of militarization on children’s consciousness.

Invited speakers::

• Olha Kuryshko, Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
• Oleksandra Dvoretska, Human Rights Activist, Head of Policy at the Bring Kids Back UA initiative.
• Valentyna Potapova, Head of the Center for Civic Education “Almenda”.
• Leviza Dzhelyal, civil society activist, wife of former political prisoner Nariman Dzhelyal.
• Alevtyna Kakhidze, Ukrainian artist, performance and media artist.
• Vladyslav Rudenko, a youth activist who resisted the Russian occupation and was forcibly taken by Russian forces from temporarily occupied Kherson.

The event is organized by the Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Media Center Ukraine, with the support of the Bring Kids Back UA initiative.