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Transcript/Script Ukraine Children Impact TV))
HEADLINE: How Russia’s War Against Ukraine Has Damaged Children
TEASER: A legacy deaths, displacement and psychological trauma
PUBLISHED AT: Tuesday, 02/22/2022 at 547pm
BYLINE: Veronica Balderas Iglesias
CONTRIBUTORS: Russian-English translator: Kate Kolomiets
DATELINE: Washington
VIDEOGRAPHER/VIDEO EDITOR: Veronica Balderas Iglesias
PRODUCER:
SCRIPT EDITORS: Tom Detzel, Bill Rodgers
VIDEO SOURCE (S): VOA, Agencies, see script for others
PLATFORMS (mark with X): WEB __ TV _X_ RADIO __
TRT: 3:07
VID APPROVED BY: TD, BR
TYPE: TVPKG
EDITOR NOTES:
UPDATE: Radio Tracks for reversioning Included
((TV INTRO))
[[The psycho-social wellbeing of an entire generation of Ukrainian children is at risk from war in the country’s eastern Donbas region, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund. With legions of Russian troops now pouring in, the situation is only worse, as VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.]]
((WEB LEAD))
[[The psycho-social wellbeing of an entire generation of Ukrainian children is at risk from war in the country’s Eastern Donbas region, the United Nations Children’s Fund recently warned. With legions of Russian troops now pouring in, the situation is only worse, as VOA’s Veronica Balderas Iglesias reports.]]
((Mandatory cg: SKYPE))
((VIDEO: Interviewee with teenage sons))
((NARRATOR))
From her house in Kyiv, Anna Gvozd, closely monitors the situation in Ukraine’s Luhansk region which
((VIDEO: Agencies))
((Mandatory cg: AP))
on Monday was recognized by Russian President Vladimir Putin as a [quote] “independent state” [unquote] and where Gvozd’s relatives live
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in the shadow of war.
((Anna Gvozd/ Has Relatives in Luhansk Separatist Enclave ))-((Female Russian))
((Mandatory cg: Skype))
“My 6-year-old niece does not go to school and her dance class because of the shelling around the city.”
((Mandatory cg: Anna Gvozd))
((NARRATOR))
Gvozd, her husband and their three sons fled the region eight years ago,
((Mandatory cg: Reuters))
after Russia annexed Crimea and instigated
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a separatist war in eastern Ukraine.
((Mandatory cg: Anna Gvozd))
It was hard on the children.
((Anna Gvozd/ Has Relatives in Luhansk Separatist Enclave)) ((Female Russian))
“We could not even rent an apartment because we, as internally displaced persons, were denied housing. They also refused us housing because they saw that we have three children. The children saw our emotional struggle.”
((NARRATOR))
((Mandatory cg: AP))
But for families that can’t flee, the trauma persists –
((Mandatory cg: AP))
and is worsening now as more Russian troops officially move in.
((Mandatory cg: AP))
((NARRATOR))
After artillery shells hit a kindergarten in the eastern territories on February 17,
UNICEF warned [quote] “the conflict has taken a severe toll on the psycho-social wellbeing of an entire generation of children.” [unquote]
((Mandatory cg: Katerina Ilievska))
((NARRATOR))
Local child advocates say the trauma is evident in many ways.
[[RADIO INTRO: SOS Children’s Villages’ National Director in Ukraine, Serhii Lukashov]]
((Mandatory cg: SKYPE))
((Serhii Lukashov, SOS Children’s Villages))
“It is becoming part of their personality/through passive aggression. /Through the, in the younger children, difficulties in communication.”
[[RADIO INTRO: Iuliia Skubytska is the Project Director at the War Childhood Museum in Ukraine]]
((Mandatory cg: SKYPE))
((Iuliia Skubytska, War Childhood Museum in Ukraine))
“It’s not just the psychological effects. It’s about chronic diseases that develop because of the stress, because of the lack of access to basic, to fulfilling basic needs, because of the loss of safety.”
((NARRATOR))
As an adviser to the United Nations on displaced people, Professor Elizabeth Ferris says she is terrified there will be a full-scale Russian invasion.
((Elizabeth Ferris, Georgetown University Professor))
“UNICEF right now estimates that some 400-thousand children are in need of humanitarian assistance before any more conflict erupts. // The immediate need will be to provide shelter, and this is the middle of the winter, to people who are displaced. To probably provide medical care would be urgent, water, food, shelter.”
((Mandatory cg: Skype))
((NARRATOR))
Anna Govdz knows the struggle her own niece faces if forced to leave.
((Anna Gvozd/ Has Relatives in Luhansk Separatist Enclave)) ((Female Russian))
“It will be a scar for life because you lived in your house, in your native environment with your friends and family, then your life changes radically.”
((Mandatory courtesy: AP)
((NARRATOR))
In June 2020, Ukraine told the United Nations that 147 children had died during the Russian armed aggression in Donbas, many by shelling, mines or touching explosives.
For the sake of her niece and others,
((Mandatory cg: Skype))
Gvozd can only hope
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for the war to end.
((Veronica Balderas Iglesias, for VOA News, Washington))
NewsML Media TopicsArts, Culture, Entertainment and Media
NetworkVOA
Location (dateline)Washington D.C.
Embargo DateFebruary 22, 2022 18:27 EST
Byline Veronica Balderas Iglesias
Brand / Language ServiceVoice of America - English