Russia's war on Ukraine has had a huge negative impact on children's welfare and education, with thousands of schools and kindergartens being destroyed and millions of young people being denied access to education, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report and video released on November 9.
The 71-page report, titled Tanks On The Playground, says that Ukrainian government figures show that 3,790 educational facilities have been destroyed or damaged across Ukraine since February 24, 2022, when Russia unleashed its unprovoked and illegal invasion of Ukraine.
The report, which focuses on the Kyiv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, and Mykolayiv regions of Ukraine, has found that schools and kindergartens were targeted by air strikes, shelling, and even cluster bombs -- a type of munition that has been banned by 112 countries because of its devastating effect on civilians. Russia and Ukraine are not among the countries that banned them.
Furthermore, the HRW report says, Russian troops have regularly looted and pillaged the Ukrainian educational facilities that fell under their control -- an act that is considered a war crime.
“Ukrainian children have paid a high price in this war because attacks on education are attacks on their future,” said Hugh Williamson, the director of HRW's Europe and Central Asia division.
“The international community should condemn the damage and destruction of schools in Ukraine and looting by Russian forces,” Williamson said at the launch of the report.
HRW compiled documentation at 50 education facilities in the four regions, interviewing almost 90 school officials, local officials, and eye witnesses to military operations.
The report says that occupying Russian forces stripped occupied educational facilities of almost everything -- computers, televisions, interactive whiteboards, and even eating systems, while systematically destroying whatever had not been looted and writing on walls hateful graffiti directed at Ukrainians.
“Most countries around the world, including European Union and NATO members, have pledged to protect education from attack, and they should help Ukraine achieve that goal," Williamson said. "Ukraine's children have the same right to education as children everywhere, and despite the war this crucial right should be protected.”
The report calls on international donors and humanitarian agencies to back the Ukrainian government's efforts to rebuild schools as soon as possible.