The Impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war on Ukrainian children in state care

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The Impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war on Ukrainian children in state care

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has had a long-lasting disastrous impact on vulnerable children in state institutions. Children, including those with disabilities, have had to survive without essential resources and additional assistance while many have become victims of war crimes, including abduction.

The war in Ukraine has had an overwhelming negative impact on children and induced the fastest and largest displacement since the Second World War. The whole nation was forced to flee their homes to seek safety after the Russian invasion. Approximately half of those who fled were children, many of whom were unaccompanied or have been separated from their families, some enduring terrible living conditions, others have been evacuated abroad or forcibly adopted by new families in Russia.

The Russian invasion has had an exceptionally distressing effect on the state of the children placed in residential institutions considering their living conditions and vulnerability.

Institutional care in Ukraine
International law indicates that children should grow up in a family-based environment. The separation from parents should only be discussed as the last resort, and only if this lies in the child’s best interests. States are obliged to support families with adequate services rather than remove a child from parental care due to poverty.

The vast majority of children in Ukraine’s institutions have parents with full parental rights., Nevertheless, they have been placed in state care due to their families’ social and economic scarcity, or the child’s disability, in which case institutions were erroneously considered as the preferred alternative.

Along with the detrimental effects of institutionalisation, Ukrainian state institutional care is failing to provide children with their primary needs, proper care or rehabilitation. The living conditions in these facilities are usually insufficient and demeaning. In these circumstances, institutionalisation can cause permanent harm to children’s physical and psychological development. The younger the child and the longer they remain in institutions, the worse the consequences.

Ukraine has more than 700 residential institutions for children: most of them built when the country was under Soviet Union rule. The Ukrainian government launched a 10-year deinstitutionalisation reform plan in 2007; however, a national study conducted in 2015 on all children’s institutions in Ukraine found that none of them had stopped being an institution. The next 10-year reform plan, launched in 2017, anticipated a 90 per cent decrease in the number of children in institutions by 2026. Yet before Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine had more than 105,000 children in state care facilities, the highest number in Europe after Russia. More than half of these children had disabilities.

In August 2022, Ukraine stated that 7,700 children with disabilities remained in institutions in areas of hostilities or under temporary occupation by Russian forces. About 3,300 residents had been evacuated while more than 50 boarding institutions were unreachable due to the occupation.

Conditions
The Russian-Ukrainian war has had a hugely destructive influence on children in residential institutions as they were separated from their families and forcibly relocated to Russia, which caused anguish and trauma.

A lot of children in institutions, including those with disabilities, had to spend weeks in basements without electricity or running water. In some cases, older children had to carry younger ones to the basement when air-raid sirens sounded. Some children from Mariupol’s institution were silent for several days due to the stress they experienced from the evacuation to another city. Neglect of children in institutions became evident in some cases. For instance, volunteers and municipal officials in Poland, who were hosting 90 children from several Ukrainian institutions, revealed that many of the children appeared underweight and small for their age and that about a third of the children from an institution for children with disabilities appeared to have been misdiagnosed by staff who had qualified as specialists in ‘defectology’.

In times of war, children with disabilities living in institutions have to handle harsh living conditions, overcrowded facilities, inadequate care due to lack of staff as well as shortages of vital medicine, food and hygiene supplies. Children with severe disabilities are particularly vulnerable, as they are unable to obtain the individual attention and assistance they require.

Ukrainian law prohibits separating siblings who are in institutions. However, in one instance, a sister was evacuated from a boarding school to Lviv, while her brother was evacuated to a foster family in Italy. Later, the sister was invited to Italy, however, the director of the institution did not provide permission for her to travel abroad. Siblings have been separated in other cases and sent to different foster families in Slovakia.

Displacement
In the first seven months of the conflict, 38,800 full-time residents and 57,700 children from part-time institutions returned to their parents or other legal guardians. However, 4,500 children from institutions were evacuated abroad, 2,050 were evacuated within Ukraine, and 3,400 remained in their original full-time institutions. More than 6,000 children were sent from occupied areas of Ukraine to children’s camps in occupied Crimea or in Russia, including the children from institutions, some of whom not only have never been returned to Ukraine but have been placed in foster care or adoption. The most grievous data signifies that 2,500 of the children evacuated abroad are orphans or have parents who had been deprived of parental rights.

The Ukrainian National Information Bureau stated that more than 19,000 children had been deported to Russia 26 March 2024. Russia has implemented a law that simplifies the adoption of Ukrainian children. Besides a one-time payment of up to 100,000 rubles (US$1,630), along with monthly utility bill reimbursements and payments of 29,000 rubles (US$473), Russians who adopt Ukrainian children receive an additional monthly payment. Based on the Krasnodar authorities’ data, adoptive parents of Ukrainian children receive 20,472.77 rubles (US$333) per child, or 156,428.66 (US$2,547) rubles for a child with a disability, a child aged seven or older, or sibling children.

The laws of armed conflict prohibit the forcible transfer and deportation of civilians from the occupied territory; in case of evacuating children, their parents or legal guardians’ written consent is required, except temporarily as needed for compelling health, medical treatment or safety reasons. UNICEF also underlines that the adoption should never occur during or immediately after an emergency. Nevertheless, as stated by the Russian children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, as of December 2022, 380 Ukrainian children had been adopted by Russian families. These children may undergo depression, problems with identity and self-acceptance, along with other mental health challenges as a result of their abduction to Russia.

It is noteworthy that the Ukrainian government has not constantly monitored the whereabouts or well-being of the extraordinarily high quantity of children sent home from institutions, determined their families’ needs, or delivered financial support for the children. The responsibility to monitor such children falls into social workers’ competency, but in many cases, there are not enough social workers available, and in some cases, none.

Way forward
Russia’s actions breach manifold conventions of international law. The abduction of children is one of the gravest violations of children’s rights in armed conflict, which can be identified as evidence of genocide.

Unaccompanied and separated children, including those with disabilities or/and evacuated from institutions, face a higher risk of violence, exploitation, and abuse. These circumstances require deep attention to the recognition and fulfillment of their rights and protection needs. Authorities, both in Ukraine and host countries, need to cooperate to ensure children’s safety and full realisation of their rights. Simultaneously, international organisations and civil societies should actively advocate for such children to assess their welfare, identify vital needs and provide them with sufficient resources. Both the governments and international agencies should provide vital humanitarian aid, including mental health and psycho-social support for children affected by the war and their families. Each of these actions needs to be in favour of eventual family reunification and return to the homeland.

This week we are delighted to publish a new post by Salome Abuladze, the blog’s regional correspondent for Caucasus. Her previous posts are available herehere and here.

The GCHRP Editorial Team

Salome Abuladze

Written by Salome Abuladze

Salome Abuladze is a chief specialist of a legal department at the Labour Inspection Office in Georgia. Her main activities include the protection of labour rights and the safety of employees in the workplace. She has experience in working on the rights of children, especially with the victims of domestic violence. Salome is a member of the Georgian Bar Association. She is an alumna of the GC Master’s Programme in Human Rights and Democratisation in the Caucasus (CES).

Cite as: Abuladze, Salome. "The Impact of the Russian-Ukrainian war on Ukrainian children in state care", GC Human Rights Preparedness, 17 October 2024, https://gchumanrights.org/preparedness-children/article-detail/the-impact-of-the-russian-ukrainian-war-on-ukrainian-children-in-state-care.html

 

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