July 2026 was the worst month for Ukrainian children since April 2022 by the number killed and injured, the Ukrainian military's strategic communications directorate reported. It cited UNICEF data, Ukraine's state register of children affected by the war, and figures from the UN monitoring mission. The directorate published the count on 1 September—the day the school year begins.

July broke a four-year record

The directorate reported that 17 children died in July 2026 and 166 were injured. That is half again more than in June. The UN monitoring mission has not recorded a higher number of Ukrainian children hurt by Russian aggression since April 2022, the first spring of the full-scale invasion, when at least 62 children were killed and 149 injured.

As of 1 September, Russia had killed 739 Ukrainian children and injured 2,840 since the full-scale invasion began, according to the directorate, while the UN's own verified count for the same period is higher, at 820 children killed and 3,126 injured. Russia has illegally deported or displaced a further 20,610—abducted, in the directorate's words. Europol has previously traced 45 deported children all the way to the military units that moved them and handed the evidence to Kyiv.

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin over the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children from occupied territory.

Explore further

437 killed, over 2,600 injured: Ukraine’s deadliest month for civilians since 2022, UN says

Empty classrooms are one part of it

Many schools did not open on 1 September because Russia keeps Ukrainian cities under constant fire, the directorate said. It argued that Russia's "genocidal practices" reach beyond education and culture.

In the occupied territories, Russia works on the children it already controls. It sent 582,000 children in 2,000 schools a first lesson on the unity of the peoples of Russia, with no Ukrainian language taught.

What these months look like on the ground

The monthly figure is built from strikes like the one near Kryvyi Rih, where rescuers pulled two children alive from the rubble of a village house and three others did not survive. In June, a Russian strike injured three children on a beach in Zaporizhzhia. 

Explore further

Russia’s 6-day attack on Kyiv that started two days after CIA head’s visit to Moscow, culminates with massive ballistic missile strike on eve of school year

In August, Russian ballistic and hypersonic missiles damaged a children's hospital in Kyiv. The capital and other cities have been under repeated attack for days at a stretch.

Life for children in Ukraine has become increasingly dangerous and deadly, according to the latest U.N. figures, which show a threefold jump in the number of deaths and injuries among children over the three months ending in May.

From March through May, 222 children were killed or injured, compared to 73 in the preceding three months, according to a press release from the U.N. Humanitarian Aid Organization for Children (UNICEF) on July 4.

The statement noted that "the ongoing use of explosive weapons in populated areas has been particularly deadly and destructive."

"There is no respite from the war for children across Ukraine," UNICEF Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, Regina De Dominicis, said. "The situation for children is at a critical juncture, as intense attacks continue to not only destroy lives but disrupt every aspect of childhood."

In April alone, UNICEF noted, 97 children were killed or maimed, which was the highest figure that the U.N. has been able to verify since June 2022. Among the attacks in April was a strike on a playground in Kryvyi Rih, which killed nine children.

Recent months have seen some of the war's deadliest attacks on civilians, as Russia steps up its aerial strikes on civilian areas and launches record numbers of drones. Russia has dramatically increased its production of these weapons and is now capable of launching in a single night as many drones as it did over an entire month in early summer 2024.

At the same time, the U.S has halted a shipment of weapons that includes air defense missiles, which Ukraine critically needs to defend itself from Russia's attacks.

‘Nothing but terror and murder’ — Russia pounds Kyiv with ballistic missiles in massive overnight attack

Fires broke out across the city as Russia attacked the capital overnight on July 4. At least 23 people have been injured, with 14 of the victims hospitalized.

The Kyiv IndependentThe Kyiv Independent news desk