Late in her pregnancy, Tanya, along with Anya and Vika, were evacuated from Mariupol at the end of February.
By
HARRY SUSILO AND KRIS MADA FROM UKRAINE
·5 minutes read
AP/EVGENIY MALOLETKA
The children of medical workers warm themselves in a blanket as they wait for their relatives in a hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, Friday, March 4, 2022.
The Russia-Ukraine war has been raging for more than four months and still shows no signs of abating. This humanitarian tragedy has claimed thousands of Ukrainian and Russian lives, including children. Since Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 Feb., 347 children have been killed and 646 others injured, according to data from the Ukrainian Attorney General’s Office as of 7 July. Apart from those killed, the war has traumatized millions of children and forced them to flee.
Some of the survivors now live without their parents. We met Tanya, 29, and her three daughters, Anya, 4, Vika, 2.5, and Ilya, 1 month, at a house in Zaporizhzhia, about 560 kilometers southeast of Kyiv, Ukraine.
Late in her pregnancy, Tanya, along with Anya and Vika, were evacuated from Mariupol at the end of February. Tanya’s husband, a militiaman, had to remain in Mariupol. Tanya’s husband died in battle in mid-April. Ilya, Tanya’s last child was born in early May in Zaporizhzhia, never having met her father. The future of Tanya’s children is now overshadowed by uncertainty.
This illustrates that war not only claims the lives of victims but it also becomes a tragedy for the families left behind. As the 34th president of the United States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, once said, “There is no glory in battle worth the blood it costs.”
To this day, several underground stations in Kharkiv still function as shelters.
The war has also destroyed at least 45 million square meters of housing, leaving millions of Russians and Ukrainians homeless. Many residents were forced to flee to underground stations. To this day, several underground stations in Kharkiv still function as shelters.
Moreover, many parents are concerned about their children’s future, as schools and universities were also destroyed by the missiles. According to data from the Ukrainian government, as many as 2,108 educational buildings were damaged by the war, with 215 of them were destroyed. Lastly, on Thursday, a university building in Kharkiv was destroyed by a missile after midnight.
AFP/DANIEL MIHAILESCU
A mother and her four children from Ukraine wait aboard a ferry going to Romania at the border point Isaccea-Orlovka between Romania and Ukraine, in Isaccea March 8, 2022. - More than two million people have fled Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion less than two weeks ago, the United Nations said on March 8, 2022.
Indeed, war leads to much suffering and loss. But it’s not only the loss of loved ones and homes. Wars also cost people their jobs, their livelihoods and countless other suffocating losses.
In Mala Rohan village, Khariv, the war also stole the livelihoods of wheat farmers. Artillery attacks destroyed granaries and left fields uncultivable as they are full of mines.
For residents of Donetsk, Luhansk and some parts of Kharkiv, war has been ongoing for more than the last few months.
Today, the Russia-Ukraine war continues to rage, especially in Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv. Almost every day this region is hit by artillery and missile attacks. For residents of Donetsk, Luhansk and some parts of Kharkiv, war has been ongoing for more than the last few months.
Those regions have been caught in the crossfire since March 2014. Russia’s invasion on 24 Feb only served to expand its scale of war. Some of the veterans from the 2014 war returned to take part in the current war.
Some of those veterans are traumatized and trying to manage depression caused by the war. Amid the war, several soldiers expressed hope that the war could end before winter.
The path of peace
With so much damage done, Ukraine will have a difficult time recovering. In 2020, Ukraine’s state budget only amounted to US$29.96 billion, and the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) reached only US$155 billion. Meanwhile, up to US$750 billion will be needed to rebuild Ukraine after the war.
The Ukrainian government is currently concentrating most of its energy on the war. Almost all of Ukraine’s diplomatic assets are being used to procure as many weapons as possible to reach its goal: to drive Russia out of the country. Thus, this condition challenges the peace process.
Although the road to Russia-Ukraine peace is still steep, it is never too late to stop the war and choose the path of peace. Some Ukrainians praised President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s initiative to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on 29 June to promote peace efforts.
“We hope this war will end soon because we have been suffering [because of it],” said Oleg, 43, a resident of Kyiv.
A day later, on 30 June, President Jokowi met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on a similar mission. President Jokowi noted that the Russia-Ukraine war had had a global impact, especially on the food and energy sectors.
AFP/DANIEL LEAL
Children play inside a shelter for refugees at the Lviv Regional Academic Puppet Theatre in western Ukraine on March 5, 2022. - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on the Poland-Ukraine border on March 5, 2022, in a show of solidarity on day 10 of Russia's invasion of its pro-Western neighbour.
By looking at the ruins of several Ukrainian cities, it is clear how cruel this war has been and how quickly it has destroyed human life. In Kharkiv, there is an inscription that reads “Time is Listening to Us” on the wall of a destroyed apartment.
The Russian-Ukraine war broke out for very complex reasons, which cannot be resolved in a short time. However, as the pioneer of the nonviolence movement from India, Mahatma Gandhi, noted: an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind. For this reason, this human tragedy must end immediately.
