Children Without Protection. Photo Gallery in Honour of International Children's Day

This is the very beginning of the war in June 2014. Battles for Slavyansk. A refugee boy flees the city at night, not yet knowing that the war will drag on for at least eight years.

Ukrainian Armed Forces strikes purposefully destroyed the infrastructure of the cities in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region. These children from the town of Debaltsevo stock up firewood to keep warm and cook food on a fire in the yard near bomb shelters.

Ukrainian Armed Forces strikes purposefully destroyed the infrastructure of the cities in eastern Ukraine’s Donbass region. These children from the town of Debaltsevo stock up firewood to keep warm and cook food on a fire in the yard near bomb shelters.

Children's curiosity often turned into tragedy. Dozens of young residents of Donbass have suffered due to exploding landmines. After picking up shells, they died or lost their arms and legs. In this photo, taken in 2015, children from the city of Donetsk are seen showing a fragment of a shell that hit their home.

This girl from the city of Gorlovka was left homeless. Her house was destroyed by Ukrainian artillery shelling.

Ukraine left many Donbass children not only without homes and health, but without friends and relatives as well. On this photo, a girl is seen holding a portrait of her friend Nikita Rusov, 12, during a funeral service. He was killed by a fragment of a Ukrainian Army shell in Donetsk on 27 November 2014.

From 2014 to 2022, Ukrainian Army shelling killed more than 100 children in Donbass.

Above: People are seen taking part in the evening memorial service ‘Interrupted Flight’ in memory of the children who died during the Donbass conflict.