How Russia’s Invasion is Impacting Ukraine’s Youth

Last month, in the dead of a cold Autumn night, residents in the Ukrainian town of Balakliia were woken by the sound of two massive explosions. Social media footage showed apartments ablaze, balconies obliterated and a deep crater smouldering in a parking lot. Three people were killed and 13 injured in the November 17 attack, Ukraine’s State Emergency Services (SES) said .

Four of those injured were children, the SES added. A kindergarten, situated just over a hundred metres from one of the impact sites, was also reported to have suffered damage. Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, schools, educational facilities and spaces used by children have repeatedly been damaged in strikes or closed because of them.

According to the United Nation’s agency for children, UNICEF