The ongoing war in Ukraine has disrupted the lives of a large swath of already vulnerable children, including institutionalized orphans, with authorities losing track of some and reporting that others have been transported to camps in Russia.
More than 105,000 Ukrainian children lived in residential institutionsopens in new window prior to Russia’s invasion according to a Human Rights Watch report published in March. Most of these children are not orphans; rather, they were institutionalized because of the family’s poverty or a child’s disability, according to the advocacy organization.
In the initial weeks following the invasion, nearly 40,000 children were sent home to protect them from incoming Russian attacks, according to the Human Rights Watch report. But authorities have not followed up on the whereabouts of roughly 26,000 of that group, according to the report.
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By early this year, more than 6,000 Ukrainian children had been taken to Russia or Russia-occupied Crimea, according to a report published in February by Conflict Observatory, an independent research project supported by the U.S. State Department. In some instances, the children, who include those previously living with their Ukrainian families as well as in institutions, have been placed with foster families in Russia, the report says. “We know that children abducted by Russia succumb to political reeducation,” said Valeriia Palii, PhD, president of the National Psychological Association of Ukraine. “Children are specially sent to the far corners of Russia in order to make it harder to find them and to destroy a possible connection with their homeland,” she added.
According to Palii, Russian psychologists who have conducted “research” on the mental characteristics of Ukrainian children say that Ukrainian children are more aggressive and need reeducation. “This is a stigmatization of lonely, traumatized children who, like any other children, want to be accepted” and will cooperate with the disavowal of their Ukrainian identity, Palii added.
The impact on these children’s mental health will vary depending on their age and living circumstances before and after their abduction to Russia, said Palii. “But we can say with confidence that this is a serious mental and cultural trauma,” she wrote in an email, noting that they may experience depression, problems with identity and self-acceptance, along with other mental health challenges as a result.
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