The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations (AFUO) will hold flash mobs on June 1 to call for the protection of the Ukrainian sky from Russian attacks and to save children – as part of the Ukrainian World Congress initiative for International Children’s Day.
Children will wear Ukrainian embroidered shirts and blouses and holding umbrellas, in a symbolic display of providing protection against Russia’s daily missile attacks across Ukraine. Flashmobs in Ukrainian-language schools across Australia aim to remind the world of the urgent need to close the sky. AFUO reminds that Russian attacks have killed around 600 and injured more than 1,350 innocent Ukrainian children since the start of the full-scale invasion.
“The International Day for the Protection of Children on 1 June focuses on the need to honour children’s right to survival, development, protection and participation in family life. Russia has robbed Ukrainian children of this opportunity. Air raid sirens are a daily occurrence. Schooling is undertaken in bunkers. Families have been divided, as fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters have joined the war effort and gone to the front line,” said Stefan Romaniw, the UWC First Vice President and Co-Chair of the AFUO.
Daily Russian missile and drone attacks are one of the main threats to Ukrainian children, emphasizes Romaniw. “Each day that passes without more air defences and missile defence systems arriving in Ukraine will end up costing more Ukrainian lives — mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, grandchildren. We must do all that we can to stop this and help protect the children so their lives can return to normal. We must act now: close the skies and save Ukrainian children!” concluded the UWC Vice President.
A rally will also take place on June 1 in Paris, announced Volodymyr Kogutyak, UWC Vice President for Western Europe and Vice President of the Association of Ukrainians in France.
The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) urgently appeals to the governments of democratic nations worldwide to provide air defense and missile defense systems to Ukraine. These systems are crucial for safeguarding civilian populations, particularly children, from Russian daily deadly missile strikes, thereby protecting their lives and health.
Ahead of the International Day for the Protection of Children, UWC also calls on Ukrainian communities worldwide to take to the streets and advocate to their governments for the urgent provision of air defense systems to Ukraine, to close Ukrainian skies against Russian missile strikes.
Cover: Shutterstock
