Today we should have celebrated Children’s Day with joyful smiles, balloons, and ice cream. We, adults, would have covered kids with warmth and care. However, 463 days for Ukrainians is daily Children’s Day. And for the second year, this day has been stained with the blood of our children.

Every little Ukrainian is traumatized by the war: air alarms, explosions, spending the night in shelters, and separation from parents and friends. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, more than 4,000 children have lost their parents due to the war, 19,505 were forcibly taken to the territory controlled by the Russian Federation, and 484 little angels lost their lives. And today, during the rocket attack, another innocent Ukrainian child became a victim of the Russians.

At the same time, the Commissioner for Children’s Rights of the Russian Federation, Lvova-Belova, cynically claims that her fellow citizens “only show love for children,” and the Russian President underscored that “children are a priority for Russia.”

Thus, the aggressor country prioritizes children: it kills and maims some physically, and injures others morally and mentally, deporting them to its territory and destroying their national identity.

We mustn’t stand by when they are robbing the childhood of our children. We must protect every child. Our duty is to help kids return to a joyful childhood again and to bring to justice anyone who dares to take it away from our children.

Today, on Children’s Day, and every following day we must join forces and do all possible to our children grow up in safety and care in a free and blooming Ukraine.