The western Ukrainian city of Lviv has commemorated the children killed during the Russian invasion. Titled “excursion that will never happen”, the city’s memorial featured empty school buses with stuffed toys strapped into seats to represent each of the 243 children so far claimed to be lost in the war.
On Wednesday Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, made note of International Children’s Day during his nightly video address to the nation, saying that since Russia began its latest invasion of Ukraine on 24 February, Ukraine’s emergency services had counted 243 children as killed, 446 wounded and 139 missing.
Zelenskiy also claimed that 200,000 children had been forcibly taken to Russia, saying: “The purpose of this criminal policy is not just to steal people but to make those who are deported forget about Ukraine and unable to return. Ukraine cannot be conquered, our people will not surrender and our children will not become the property of the occupiers.”
The memorial event in Lviv took place in Rynok Square, the city’s central market. As well as the empty school buses, the streets were littered with signs saying “Caution! Children!” as a protest against the violation of children’s rights during the war.
The mayor of Lviv, Andriy Sadovyi, said the installation represented the fact that “243 Ukrainian children will never go on a field trip by bus”.
One observer tweeted that the display was “heartbreaking”, saying that “no child should ever be afraid, hear the sounds of explosions, bombings. Children in Ukraine are being deprived of their childhood, their personalities are being deeply traumatised.”
There was also a protest in Moscow timed to coincide with International Children’s Day, which is held on 1 June in many states that were formerly part of the Soviet Union.
Protesters beamed images of children they claimed had been killed by the military actions of Ukrainian forces within the occupied Donbas region of Ukraine on to the walls of the US embassy in Moscow.