Children take center stage in UN meeting on Russia’s war in Ukraine: ‘World gone mad’

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Children in crisis amid Russia’s war in Ukraine took center stage during a UN Security Council meeting Tuesday as UN members cited numerous staggering statics and once again called on Moscow to end the war.

World leaders condemned Russia’s deadly invasion and the effects it has had on global food shortages, the spike in internationally displaced people and the energy crisis it has helped plunge the world into.

"Last Thursday, the UN released its global humanitarian overview for 2023 which set another record with 339 million people in need of assistance and a price tag of $51 billion," U.S. Ambassador Lisa Carty said Tuesday. "Russia's aggression triggered one of the largest refugee and displacement crises since World War Two."

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A man carries his child away from the damaged by shelling maternity hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

"President Putin has focused his ire and fire on Ukraine's civilian population," she continued noting Moscow’s constant attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. 

"These consequences are horrific and cause needless suffering," she added. "Children cannot attend school and doctors cannot treat the sick."

Two-thirds of all children have been displaced, 2,500 schools destroyed or damaged, and 5 million children are unable to attend school, officials detailed.

But aside from the devastation, Russia’s war has caused to Ukraine’s infrastructure, UN officials also pointed to the psychological effect it has taken on Ukraine’s youngest generations. 

"1.5 million children are at risk of suffering from depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress and other conditions which require mental health interventions," the ambassador to Mexico said.

Under Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said some 765,000 children have received psychosocial support to help them cope with the effects of the war. 

"I don't apologize for the stream of really terrifying statistics," Griffiths said. "Since February, 1,148 children have been killed or injured, while millions have fled, uprooted from their homes, separated from their families, or put at risk of violence."

World leaders also said they were concerned by sexual and gender-based violence, as well as human trafficking that children have fallen victim to. 

A child copies the position of Ukrainian servicemen standing at attention during the national anthem during an event marking a Day of Unity in Sievierodonetsk, the Luhansk region, eastern Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2022.  (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)

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"Thousands of Ukrainian children have reportedly been transferred to Russia for adoption and neutralization through simplified and accelerated procedures without consent from their parents or legal guardians," the delegate to Norway said. 

"The statistics we have heard from the UN today are shocking," UK Ambassador Barbara Woodward added. "The trauma inflicted by Russia will last for generations."

The delegate for Ireland echoed these sentiments and said Ukrainian children have been "robbed of their childhoods" and their "right to education denied."

Russia rejected the international condemnation it once again faced Tuesday and suggested its troops were targeting civilian areas because Ukraine had erected air defense systems in those areas. 

Roughly 40 percent of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed and is contributing to the nearly 18 million in Ukraine who are in need of humanitarian assistance, including the nearly 7 million who have been internally displaced. 

A woman holds a child in an improvised bomb shelter in Mariupol, Ukraine, Monday, March 7, 2022.  (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov))

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Officials on Tuesday warned that the repercussions of Russia’s war would affect not only generations to come in Ukraine but across the globe. 

"Humanitarian needs are accelerating, and this is especially true for winter," the Under Secretary-General warned. "But I place that within that larger context of a world gone mad, which sees 1 in 23 people in need of humanitarian assistance around the globe. 

"It's a picture which is unimaginable," Griffiths added.