“Children of Ukraine”: Portuguese community opens outdoor exhibition

The Ukrainian community in Portugal has opened an open-air Children of Ukraine exhibition dedicated to the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, announced Pavlo Sadokha, UWC Vice-President and President of the Union of Ukrainians in Portugal.

“Friends! In D. Pedro IV Square (Rossio) in Lisbon, the Children of Ukraine exhibition has been installed on the occasion of the second anniversary of the large-scale war and the tenth anniversary of Russian aggression. It features photographs by Portuguese journalists who visited Ukraine,” said Sadokha.

The UWC Vice President reminded that as of January 2, 2024, due to Russian aggression, 515 children have died, and 1178 have been injured, according to the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.

“The most significant losses [from the large-scale war] are the innocent victims of this unjust and unwarranted war by Russia against the Ukrainian people. Over a thousand criminal cases related to war crimes by the Russian Federation against Ukrainian children have been registered. They are being investigated since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. … Preliminary estimates indicate that about 19.5 thousand Ukrainian children were forcibly deported to territories controlled by the aggressor. But these are definitely underestimated figures that do not account for the situation in the occupied territories,” emphasized Sadokha.

A total of 24 panels comprising the exhibition tell the harrowing stories of children’s suffering and call on the global community to protect the humanitarian values and principles outlined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. “Do not accept contemporary silence in the face of children’s cries of despair. Is there a more beautiful sound in the world than the laughter of a happy child?!… For peace and the right to life!” stressed the UWC Vice President.

The exhibition’s patron is a Portuguese individual who “requested to remain incognito but did colossal work to remind the world about the war in Ukraine,” said Sadokha.

“This happened last summer. He approached us at one of the rallies and offered to finance an exhibition of photographs that would speak about the suffering of Ukrainian children due to Russian aggression. … We truly have great support from the Portuguese, who value human life and justice. These are real fighters for real peace. The kind of peace that I personally want to see in Ukraine and a Europe united by democratic values. Thank you, our Portuguese friend!” wrote Sadokha.

In alignment with the UWC’s StandWithUkraine global advocacy campaign and to mark the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine – a war that has now spanned a decade – resources have been developed to facilitate exhibitions and various events within communities.

Materials can be downloaded using the link provided.