Ukraine is the second-largest country in Europe, after Russia, and has an estimated population of 44 million. Sadly, children in Eastern Ukraine have grown up in conflict for the past eight years, enduring violence, shelling, loss of parents, and being displaced from their homes. Today, fighting in Ukraine has forced more than 6 million Ukrainians to be internally displaced, and some 8 million are refugees. More than 4 children a day are killed or injured.

Ukraine’s children are caught in the crossfire of this adult war. It should never have come to this. The ongoing conflict has severely disrupted the education system, with many schools being destroyed or damaged, leaving countless children without access to proper education.