The Emergency of Rape Survivors and their “Children Born of War”

Lina Stotz and Ingvill Constanze Ødegaard

After being systematically raped by Russian soldiers, countless Ukrainian women are now becoming mothers. The “Children Born of War” might face a multitude of problems that should be addressed now. In the early summer of 2022, reports of rapes of Ukrainian women and girls perpetrated by Russian soldiers during the war first emerged in Western media. That was almost nine months ago.

As a result, children are being born - not only in Ukraine, but also in Poland or Germany where Ukrainian women have fled. These children need to be taken care of. They need special psychological care, economic support, and a perspective in Ukraine without exclusion since they were born in the course of the Russian war of aggression. Reporting on the war should also take these children into account so that they are not forgotten in all the terrible turmoil of this war and also the UN with its aid organisations must take care of these children.

On this matter, Lina Stotz and Ingvill Constanze Ødegaard published an op-ed in the German newspaper, Kölner Stadtanzeiger.

Read the op-ed here (in German): Ukraine: Das Drama vergewaltigter Frauen und ihrer „Kinder des Krieges“ | Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger (ksta.de)