Russia, Hamas and the Deaths of Children: How Aggressors Use Child Tragedy to Justify Crimes

It is especially important to expose how aggressor states, such as Russia, and terrorist groups, such as Hamas, turn other people's pain into propaganda, sow hatred, and distort reality, hiding behind the names of dead children.
When the same tragic stories are repeated year after year — no matter where the war is happening — people eventually stop seeing real children behind them.
Then the memory of the dead turns into an instrument for new wars, and mothers’ pain becomes a reason for political games. We write this article not just as a reminder: Russia, Ukraine, Gaza, Israel — these are not abstract geographical points, but the destinies of millions, including children who became hostages and victims of adult games, manipulation, and lies.

Why now: manipulation of memory and consciousness

Russia, Hamas and the death of children: how aggressors use children's tragedy to justify crimes
The reason for this article was a new wave of Russian propaganda around the so-called “Day of Remembrance for Children Victims of War in Donbas”, marked annually on July 27.
On this day, Russian media, government funds and "cultural" institutions simultaneously broadcast the same narrative: “the children of Donbas died because of Ukrainian shelling,” “Ukraine is the aggressor,” and Russia is supposedly the only defender. There are texts about the “Day of Special Sorrow,” virtual candles on the “Alley of Angels,” memorial installations, films about mothers' suffering. At the same time, exhibitions open in museums, where the tragedy of Ukrainian children is woven into the propaganda myth of “Nazism” and the eternal threat to the “Russian world”.
But behind all these tears, carefully staged reports, and plaques with names, there is a dangerous substitution: the real cause of the tragedy is never named.
Silence about the fact that Donbas is Ukraine, and all the dead children were citizens of Ukraine, allows the Kremlin to turn memory into a weapon that no longer strikes the aggressor, but the victim.
Donetsk and Luhansk regions: Ukrainian lands and Ukrainian children
All the children who died in Donbas are Ukrainian boys and girls, born and raised on territory recognized by the international community as Ukraine.
Before 2014, Horlivka, Donetsk, and Luhansk were part of peaceful, though complicated, Ukrainian life. Since spring 2014 everything changed: Russia occupied Crimea, ignited an armed conflict in eastern Ukraine, and turned cities into battle zones. It was then that hundreds of thousands of children first heard what an artillery barrage and automatic gunfire outside their windows sounded like. Every third child in Donbas lost their usual school, friends, or home.
International organizations — the UN, UNICEF, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International — for ten years in a row have stated: it was precisely Russian interference and the support of armed groups that caused the escalation.
It is not by chance that the OHCHR report of August 2014 emphasizes:
"Since the start of the conflict in 2014, both sides bear responsibility for civilian casualties, but the conflict itself was initiated by the intervention of the Russian Federation on the territory of Ukraine."
How the myth was created — and why the aggressor needs it
The “Alley of Angels” in Donetsk did not appear immediately: at first, Russia did not care about memorial policy, with control of territory as the main goal. Only after the first hundreds of civilians died did the Kremlin realize the emotional power of such symbols.
Since 2015, the mass creation of memorials and solemn dates began, the virtual candles project was launched — as of 2024, they claim to have lit 485 thousand times. In museums in Moscow and Rostov, installations about “Nazism” and “Ukrainian punishers” are displayed.
Films like “Mom, Don’t Cry” are released in parallel, where only Ukrainian guilt is shown in artistic form, while Russia plays the role of savior.
All this is aimed at a domestic audience, at those who don’t ask: why are all these children Ukrainian, why did their homes become the front line? And what is the real cost of Russian policy?
Numbers that cannot be ignored
From 2014 to 2021, according to UNICEF and the UN, at least 240 children died in Donbas alone, and more than a thousand were injured. Amnesty International specifies that in 2015–2017, more than 50 children were blown up by mines and unexploded ordnance, and by 2019, according to Ukrainian data, over 200 thousand children became internally displaced persons.
After the start of the full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, the tragedy became even greater: according to official Ukrainian data, by summer 2024, more than 550 children had died, more than 1,300 were wounded, and the number of destroyed schools and kindergartens exceeded a thousand. UNICEF calculated: in the first 500 days of full-scale war in Ukraine, at least one child died or was injured every day.
But the main detail that Russia always omits: all these children died not “in no man's land,” but on the territory of Ukraine, in their homeland. Their lives ended because of the policy of occupation and war that the Kremlin started for its own interests.
Propaganda techniques and silences
In official Russian memorial lists, it never says that these children were citizens of Ukraine, nor does it mention that the war began after the Russian invasion. No film or exhibition reminds us that before 2014 Donbas was a peaceful Ukrainian territory.
Instead, the tragedy becomes a tool for manipulating public consciousness, “proof” of the need for war, mobilization, new hatred. Every memorial is not an attempt to stop future deaths, but a legitimation of further crimes.

Israel and Gaza: October 7, 2023 and the New Escalation

The same logic of manipulation works in the Middle East, where on October 7, 2023, Hamas carried out the largest terrorist attack against Israel in the country's modern history. On that day, terrorists killed 1,200 Israelis, including at least 40 children, and more than 30 children were abducted and taken to Gaza — some of them are still hostages.
Israel, which for years faced regular shelling and terrorist attacks, became the victim of the largest and bloodiest escalation.
There was conflict between Israel and Gaza before, but never before had Hamas terrorists inflicted such a massive blow on Israel’s civilian population.
This was not just an escalation — it was a turning point, after which Israel was forced to launch a large-scale military operation to eliminate the threat and free the hostages.
Immediately after that, the world saw how Hamas again used children as human shields: launchers, headquarters, and weapons depots are located among residential buildings, schools, and hospitals so that every death of a Palestinian child becomes another reason for an anti-Israeli campaign.
Human rights organizations and the UN have repeatedly emphasized:
“The use of civilians, especially children, as human shields is a grave violation of international humanitarian law. Such tactics result in numerous casualties and aggravate the suffering of the population.”
These quotes are relevant not only to Gaza — they can also be applied to Donbas, where armed formations supported by Russia operated according to the same schemes, placing firing points in residential areas.
Why We Should Not Allow Pain to Become an Instrument of War
When Russia or Hamas appeals to the memory of dead children, their words do not reflect a desire for peace, but a desire to legitimize their own aggression.
It is no coincidence that international law and leading organizations — Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, UNICEF, OHCHR — are unanimous in one thing: responsibility for the deaths of children lies with those who started the war, who deliberately endanger civilians, who make the death of a child part of their political strategy.
The fate of each child is not an abstract statistic or a media symbol, but a real human story that should not be left to propaganda. True memory is not a virtual candle or a memorial, but a desire to name the guilty and never allow tragedies to be repeated.
Conclusion: Truth Is Stronger Than Manipulation
The children of Donbas are Ukrainian children whose lives were cut short by Russia’s war policy.
Israeli children killed or abducted by Hamas on October 7 are children who became hostages of hatred and terror.
The children of Gaza are victims of Hamas, who deliberately puts them in harm's way for propaganda purposes.
The main thing is not to let any side use their names to justify new killings and further escalation.
"It is important to remember every child who died, to seek justice for all victims of war, and not to allow aggressors to use the suffering of children to justify new crimes and the destruction of peace."
— NAnews

Who Is to Blame: In Ukraine — Russia, In Gaza — Hamas

In both cases, the aggressor uses children as an instrument:
- Russia — to justify the occupation of Ukrainian territory and erase the identity of the Ukrainian children who died. In Donbas, Russia bears responsibility for the death of Ukrainian children as the aggressor state that started the war on Ukrainian territory.
- Hamas — to justify its own terror, cover itself with the victims among Palestinian children, and demonize Israel to the whole world.
The UN and all leading human rights organizations emphasize:
- The blame lies with those who started the war and deliberately put children in danger.
- Manipulating the memory of dead children is a new crime against peace.
Working English-Language Sources
- OHCHR (UN, Ukraine): https://www.ohchr.org/en/countries/ukraine
- UNICEF (Children of Ukraine): https://www.unicef.org/ukraine/en/stories/children-ukraine-eight-years-war
- Amnesty International (Ukraine): https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/europe-and-central-asia/ukraine/report-ukraine/
- Human Rights Watch (Ukraine): https://www.hrw.org/news/2014/07/25/ukraine-civilians-suffer-indiscriminate-attacks
- The Guardian (Conflict explainer): https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/22/russia-ukraine-conflict-donbas-explainer
- Human Rights Watch (Gaza): https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/10/13/israel/gaza-conflict-civilians
- OHCHR (Gaza): https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/10/israel-gaza-civilians-must-be-protected-amid-escalating-violence
NAnews — News of Israel: keep critical thinking and human compassion, do not let the memory of dead children become a bargaining chip in someone else's political game. https://nikk.agency/en/russia-hamas-and/