Children of war under double blow: 81 verdicts handed down in Dnipropetrovsk region in cases where minors are victims
Childhood in wartime has long ceased to be just a story about evacuation, air raids, and life under the threat of shelling. Children suffer not only from war, but also from violence in families, cruelty by adults, and criminal irresponsibility. In the Dnipropetrovsk region, this problem is especially acute, as the region is simultaneously experiencing the consequences of Russian attacks and investigating dozens of criminal cases where the victims are minors. The prosecutor’s office’s data show the scale of the danger that children face at home, on the street, during shelling, and in everyday life.
What the Dnipropetrovsk region prosecutor’s office reported
In the Dnipropetrovsk region, since the beginning of 2026, courts have passed 81 guilty verdicts in criminal proceedings where the victims were children. This was reported by the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office Valeriy Prihozanov, who emphasized that such cases are the focus of attention of the prosecutor’s office.
“Crimes against children are an absolute priority in the work of the prosecutor’s office of the Dnipropetrovsk region. All such proceedings are under personal control… In total, since the beginning of 2026, the regional courts have passed guilty verdicts in 81 criminal proceedings where the victims are children,” the prosecutor said.
According to Prihozanov, he personally heads groups of prosecutors in 15 criminal proceedings in which children were victims. Six of them are at the stage of pre-trial investigation, and another nine are already being considered in courts. Such control is explained by the severity of the crimes and the vulnerability of the victims, who are often unable to independently protect their rights or fully explain their experiences.
Life imprisonment for the murder of a child
One of the most serious examples was the prosecutor’s case about a crime that occurred in July 2021 in one of the villages of the Kryvyi Rih district. In 2026, the court passed a guilty verdict and sentenced the convict to life imprisonment.
According to the case materials, the man came to the house of his former cohabitant when the children were left alone. He tied them up and used them as a tool to pressure the woman, after which he attacked the minor child.
“The convict came to the house of his former cohabitant when the children were alone at home. He tied them up and, using them as a means of pressure on the woman, called her and asked how much her children’s lives were worth. After that, in front of a seven-year-old girl, he fatally wounded a two-year-old boy. Despite the medical care provided, the child died,” Prikhojanov said.
The court supported the prosecution’s position and imposed the harshest punishment. Prikhojanov called this sentence fair, since the crime was directed against a defenseless child and was accompanied by particular cruelty.
Other high-profile cases involving children
The prosecutor’s office is also personally supervising several other proceedings involving serious consequences for minors. Among them is the case of a judge who, according to the investigation, caused an accident at a pedestrian crossing at a prohibited traffic light. As a result of the accident, the child is in serious condition.
Separately, the prosecutor’s office is supervising the proceedings regarding the systematic torture of a child in Nikopol, which led to her death. Such cases show that the danger to children exists not only during shelling, but also in everyday life, in families, on the street, in places where adults should guarantee safety.
“In each of these cases, the position of the prosecutor’s office is principled – maximum responsibility of the guilty,” – emphasized Prikhojanov.
Children as victims of Russian aggression
A separate dimension of this topic is related to the war. According to the head of the regional prosecutor’s office, in 2026 alone, one child died as a result of Russia’s armed aggression in the territory of the Dnipropetrovsk region, and another 77 children were injured as of May 11.
Such figures reflect the daily danger for children in frontline and shelled communities, where debris, missiles, drones and artillery strikes can at any moment destroy a home, school, yard or the road a child walks on with his parents. For investigators and prosecutors, these facts become separate proceedings in which it is necessary to record the consequences of the attacks, collect evidence and establish the circumstances of each injury or death.
“Our task is to punish the guilty for each such fact,” – summed up the head of the regional prosecutor’s office.
Crimes against children require special attention, because minor victims are often dependent on adults, afraid to talk about violence or do not have the opportunity to seek help on their own. In wartime, this vulnerability increases, as families live in stress, some children lose their home, loved ones, stable education and access to a familiar environment.
Data from the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast Prosecutor’s Office shows that protecting children during wartime is not limited to investigating Russian shelling. It also covers murders, torture, sexual violence, road accidents, domestic violence, and all cases where a child becomes a victim due to the actions of adults. That is why each such case has not only legal, but also human significance, because behind the court verdicts stand specific children, their families, and the consequences that last a lifetime.
