‘An Act of Terrorism’: Putin’s War on Ukraine’s Children

Sian Norris reports on Russia’s armed violence against Ukraine’s schools, and the impact of the war on the country’s most vulnerable population

Russian forces have attacked and damaged dozens of schools in Ukraine, as part of an assault designed to break the country’s infrastructure and morale, Byline Times can reveal.

Data from the charity Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) records 23 direct hits from Russian explosive arms on schools where civilians have been killed or injured, with a further 40 incidents of schools damaged by shelling, leading to civilian casualties. Its data is based on reports of civilian casualties in English-language news media.

However, data that focuses more broadly on attacks on infrastructure puts the figure far higher. Plan International, an NGO focusing on children’s safety and rights, told Byline Times that 361 schools have been destroyed in the war since the escalation of the conflict on 24 February last year – with more than 2,600 being damaged. 

For Dasha, a former headteacher in Donetsk who is now living in Poland, the destruction of her beloved and prestigious school was devastating. The school, she said, “used to represent the future for Ukrainian children and now it’s all gone”. Dasha is receiving direct cash support from Plan International.

The most deadly attack on a school took place in July 2022, in Bilohirivka in the Luhansk Oblast. The Russian airstrike killed 62 civilians. AOAV has also recorded incidents of children killed during strikes against schools – on the second day of the war, a child was killed when a cluster bomb exploded and damaged a school in Sumy, north-eastern Ukraine. 

In March 2022, a boy was killed during an attack on a school in Mariupol, while in Donetsk in May, one child was killed and three schools damaged by Russian forces. 

One attack on a school in the Kyiv Oblast was described to Byline Times by Sven Coppens, Plan International’s director of its Ukraine response. “It was devastating,” he said. “There was a kindergarten opposite the local health centre. The Russian forces used