Ukraine: Child casualties see alarming spike in 2024 as war marks 900 days

Child casualties in Ukraine surged by nearly 40% in the first half of this year, bringing the total number of children killed or injured in nearly 900 days of war to about 2,200, said Save the Children.

At least 71 children were killed or injured in July, making it the deadliest month in the conflict since September 2022, according to figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. The majority of these casualties (95%) resulted from explosive weapons.

Child casualties spiked following a series of deadly attacks across multiple cities on 8 July, which killed at least 43 civilians, including five children. Among the injured were at least seven children at Ukraine's largest children's hospital, Okhmatdyt in Kyiv, which was heavily damaged during the attacks.

Tamara's* 16-year-old son narrowly escaped injury when a missile struck 30 metres away from their home on July 8 in Kyiv:

"[My children] came to my room just as the missiles were being shot down. He [younger son] along with my older son came into my room right before the shockwaves swept through. The couch he was sleeping on was covered with bits of ceiling. If he hadn't moved, he would have been struck by the collapsed ceiling. We are recovering but it does not feel good…People used to be able to live their lives and then in a second you lose everything."

A total of 2,184 child casualties have been documented by the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) since the full-scale war began in February 2022, with 633 killed and 1,551 injured. The war marks 900 days on 12 August.

There was a 40% increase in child casualties in the first seven months of 2024, when 341 children were killed or injured compared to 243 children killed or injured in the last seven months of 2023.

Stephane Moissaing, Deputy Country Director for Save the Children in Ukraine, said:

"It has been 900 days from the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, and in each of them we saw a child either killed or injured. Countless air strikes and shelling seemed to have loosened their grip on children in late 2023, when we observed a decrease in child casualties, yet ever so briefly.

"This year, violence has enraged with a new force, and it is missiles, drones, and bombs that are to blame for more and more children falling victims to blasts by day. The suffering for families will not stop as long as explosive weapons are sweeping through populated towns and villages across Ukraine. We must do everything we can to protect children, their homes, and their schools from the devastation of this war."

Save the Children calls for all parties to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law and abstain from using explosive weapons with wide-area effects in populated areas. Civilians and civilian objects, especially those impacting children such as homes, schools, and hospitals, must be protected from attack all time.

Save the Children has been working in Ukraine since 2014 and has scaled up operations since the war escalated in February 2022. The organisation is working closely with multiple partners to provide life-saving assistance such as food and water, cash transfers, and safe spaces, to make sure children and families impacted by this crisis have the support they need.