Each country is defined, among many other factors, geographically and politically by its territory. If a country loses some of its territory, it causes fatal damage to its territorial integrity and is fatally damaged, which is a matter of exceptional importance, especially since such states usually do not have the least chance for border corrections in the next decades or even centuries.
But a state is so much more than territory! The territory and the borders are no more than a skeleton. States are built on national foundations, and the nation is determined, among many other things, is determined by its composition and also by inner motivations and fears.
If the number of children in a state which has lost part of its territory is reduced to a critical extent, this represents a real national disaster which already warns of the the gloomy future of the country.
Therefore, in the case of our war-torn Ukraine, the fact that Zelensky is grateful to the Ukrainian soldiers who liberated a large territory in September does not matter at all. ’Ukraine does not for a single moment doubt itself, its future, its victory’, he said. ’We develop the country and develop ourselves. (…) And most importantly, we continue to build our Ukrainian future. Free and independent’, he added.
The optimistic words of President of Ukraine are nothing else but deceptive tinsel, especially in the light of statistics.
Ø From February 24 to September, more than 12.325 million border crossings were registered in Ukraine.
Ø The number of Ukrainian refugees recorded across Europe exceeds 7.160 million.
The details of the above figures show the number of border crossings from Ukraine to the main destination countries by the beginning of September 2022:
o Poland: approx. 6.000 million
o Hungary: approx. 1.340 million
o Romania: approx. 1.170 million
o Slovakia: approx. 760.000
o Moldova: approx. 600.000
We should not forget about the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Ukraine, whose estimated number is about 6.975 million. It should also be noted that IDP arrivals are increasing in several regions across Ukraine. Over the coming months, some 70,000 new IDPs are expected in Lviv region, and 50,000 new IDPs in each other western Ukrainian regions. The number of IDPs arriving in Zakarpattya is gradually increasing — there were at least 100,000 new estimated IDP arrivals since July.
On September 1, 800 thousand (!) fewer children went to school in Ukraine-controlled areas than last year, the Ukrainian Minister of Education and Science said in an interview. Serhiy Shkarlet noted that before the war there were almost 4.2 million school-age children in Ukraine. According to the Ministry, about 641.000 school-aged children stay abroad, and about 200 thousand stay in Russian-occupied territories. ’This is a tragedy for Ukraine’, he added.
So, on 1 September, the new school year commenced in Ukraine, in classrooms or remotely — modalities vary, depending on the security situation. In addition, some neighboring and other countries should also be mentioned considering their extra efforts to integrate the school-aged children of the Ukrainian refugees into their education system.
According to official data, approx. 460,000 school-age children are registered in Poland for temporary protection, but only 185,000 Ukrainian children started school there this year. Earlier it was reported that the Austrian authorities expected that 50,000 Ukrainian children would start the new school year in Austria. As for Hungary, there is no accurate public data available how many Ukrainian children started school there, but it is known that the number of minors among Ukrainian refugees registered for temporary protection is somewhere between 10–20,000. In Hungary, the obligation of compulsory school attendance applies to each child, including refugees, who must start their studies in state educational institutions, and the authorities must grant everyone the basic right to education. It should be noted that in Slavic-speaking countries like Poland or Slovakia, the Ukrainian students find it easier to cope with local education. There are quite a lot of school-age children in the Baltics, which are a popular destination for Ukrainians fleeing the war. (E.g. according to official data, in Lithuania, about 18,000 of the 65,000 Ukrainians who have settled there are school-age children. In Latvia, where the total number of refugees is about 36,000, 3,300 new Ukrainian pupils started the school year.) As for the internally displaced persons, and their school-age kids, I can present one official data according to which 170 thousand children started school this year in the Transcarpathian region. Of these, 2,500 are internally displaced children.
And now, after citation of statistics, and presenting which European states make the biggest efforts to provide Ukrainian kids with an appropriate education, let me give you an insight into the hidden thoughts of Ukrainian refugees which are completely ignored by Zelenkiy. One of Ukraine’s biggest public opinion polling companies has recently made an online survey. More than 500 people in 30 countries around the world were interviewed — Ukrainians who fled the war were asked about their intentions to return home after the war ends. The results are as follows:
§ 36 percent of respondents said that they want to return to Ukraine only if they are no longer in danger in their former place of residence.
§ 35 percent would go home immediately after the war ends.
§ 13 percent would have waited a couple of years.
§ And finally, 7 percent (!) do not plan to return to Ukraine at all, because they have already found a new homeland.
So, not to mention the Ukrainian soldiers heroically fighting for their homeland and defending the country to their last drop of blood, on whom Zelenskiy’s visionary future Ukraine will be built?? While a whole nation leaves the beloved fatherland and Ukrainian children start the school year in different European countries, the issue of the territories recaptured from the Russians, is secondary. But while Zelenskiy emphasizes, that the most important is the fact that the school year in Ukraine has started, and that in some locations, the education is underway, I would like to stress once again that this is not enough! In fact, it is nothing. Ukrainians, their sons and daughters, need peace throughout Ukraine. When Zelenskiy does not promise peace, he does not really promise anything.
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