Nearly two-thirds of all Ukrainian children have fled their homes in the six weeks since Russia’s invasion, and the United Nations has verified the deaths of 142 youngsters, though the number is almost certainly much higher, the U.N. children’s agency said Monday.

Day: Monday, 11 April 2022

Time: 9 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. EDT / 3 p.m.  – 4:30 p.m. CET 

Lone children fleeing Ukraine are being housed with adults under the UK’s refugee schemes scheme without proper checks taking place, The Independent can reveal. More than 200,000 Britons have signed up to the government programme which allows UK sponsors to “match” with Ukrainians fleeing the war. In total 1,200 refugees have arrived under the scheme so far, while a further 10,800 have come under the family scheme, which allows Ukrainian refugees to join relatives in Britain.

A 17-year-old Ukrainian girl remained in U.S. government custody on Saturday after being denied immediate entry into the country by authorities along the southern border, where a growing number of Ukrainians have been traveling in hopes of entering the U.S., her caregivers told CBS News.

The Ukrainian Ombudswoman for Human Rights has said that the Russian government is crafting legislation to allow Russians to adopt Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russia by military forces. She has also stated that, so far, over 121,000 children have been "deported" by the Russian government.

On 7 April 2022, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on "EU Protection of Children and Young People Fleeing the War Against Ukraine" calling for greater protection of children fleeing war in Ukraine, particularly vulnerable children, for the registration of children entering the EU from institutional care, as well as monitoring their well-being and location in the EU. MEPs called on member states to halt child adoptions in order to avoid further or permanent separation of children from their parents and families against their best interests.

More than 2,000 have reached the U.S. border with Mexico, where an expected spike in migration from other countries will raise tough questions: Who gets priority?

As the most recent conflict in the Ukraine enters its seventh week, countless lives, homes and childhoods continue to be lost.

For the most part, the Ukrainian government has insisted that the nation’s children remain in Europe to ensure expeditious family reunification when the war is over. Importantly, not all children residing in Ukrainian orphanages were orphans, and many were not eligible for intercountry adoption — the majority have parents and families who placed them in orphanages for economic and medical reasons.

UNICEF is helping to turn Ukrainian subway stations into emergency support spaces for children caught in a brutal war.