Stop bombing schools and childcare facilities! EU pleads for children in Ukraine

The European Union has condemned the bombardment of the children’s and maternity hospital in Mariupol as “the latest in a series of atrocities and crimes committed against children”. 

“Every child has a right to grow up in a peaceful and secure environment, to learn and have prospects for a better future,”the EU said in a statement on 10 March. “Children in Ukraine should be in schools and on playgrounds. Instead, they are trapped in bomb shelters, exposed to unimaginable fear and terror, with Russian missiles flying over their heads.”

The EU said more than half the 2 million people fleeing Ukraine were children. “These children have been ripped out of their homes, of their schools or childcare, they are stranded in foreign countries, they are traumatised, they have no immediate access to learning.”

“We remind Russia that even wars have rules, and these rules are not optional,” the EU insisted. “Stop targeting civilians. Stop targeting their infrastructure. Stop bombing schools and childcare facilities. Children should not pay for this war with their lives.”

“We urge Russia to stop this war now, so no more children have to die. The world is watching and history will remember.”

According to the Ukrainian government, 277 education institutions have suffered bombing and shelling, and 9 of them have been destroyed completely. The Ukrainian Ministry of Education has compiled a website listing attacks on schools and other educational facilities.

Find out more

Press release