“For 15 months now, the daily lives of Ukrainian children have been dominated by Russia's monstrous aggression. Countless air strikes have destroyed schools and kindergartens and taken the lives of hundreds of children and the future of hundreds of thousands. All wars rob children of their future and are therefore always waged against children. The International Children's Day should be a joyful celebration with music and games everywhere in the world, but the war in Ukraine is taking the party atmosphere away,” said President Karis.
President Karis stressed that every effort should be made to bring back children deported from Ukraine or separated from their families and referred to the view of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly that the deportation of children from Ukraine bears the hallmark of genocide. “Under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, children whose lives are affected by military conflict must be protected and cared for. A child must have the right to be a child, as well as the right to rest, to play and to do other activities of their choice,” President Karis stressed.
The Estonian President noted that there are currently nearly 10,000 Ukrainian children attending kindergarten or school in Estonia and described the fate of Masha, who arrived in Tallinn from Bucha last year. He added that she is safe in Estonia, but still suffers from panic attacks and misses her father. “According to Masha, her childhood ended the day the war started. The hardest thing for refugees is knowing that their life will never be as it was before the war. Masha is happy in Estonia, but she feels she has no right to be when so many children are suffering in Ukraine,” said President Karis in his speech at the Children's Day Forum.
The Estonian head of state visited the memorial to the children lost in war at the World War II Museum in Kyiv and placed a doll of literary character Sipsik, much loved by Estonian children, on the memorial altar.
