Attacks on disabled people and facilities

Ukraine

Russia Targeted and Deported Disabled Children From Ukraine reporting on 84 disabled people, both children and adults, forcibly moved by Russia from the Oleshky Specialized Boarding School. (Oct, New Lines Magazine)

Russia told Ukrainians with disabilities they were visiting the seaside - but they were kidnapped and disappeared:

“Maksym and Inna are among at least 500 Ukrainians with disabilities – including children – that have likely been forcibly removed to Russian-held territory and Russia, according to an 18-month investigation by The Independent. The whereabouts of many of those we have documented remain unknown: of the people taken from Makysm’s facility, only 10 people have reappeared. None has been located from Inna’s.” (May, The Independent)

‘Mom, I went to hell’ A disabled Ukrainian man was nearly tortured to death in occupied Melitopol. Now he’s back in Russian captivity. (2023)

Russians deported elderly, disabled Ukrainians “Russian invaders transported elderly citizens and representatives of vulnerable categories from Ukraine to the territory of the Russian Federation, where they were deprived of citizenship, forced to become blood donors, and did not provide assistance after unsuccessful medical procedures.” (2023, UKRinform)

The Ukrainian Psychiatric Hospital That Endured Russian Occupation – photo-essay account from the director of an institution near Kyiv for people with mental and physical disabilities. “In the summer, the patients returned to their psychiatric home. Now they sometimes ask anxiously if the Russians will return. Many hold on to the idea that they need to stock up on bread. They hide it in their nightstands.” (2022, Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty)

Near Kherson, orphanage staff hid Ukrainian children from Russian occupiers. (2022, Washington Post)

Russian attack in Vinnytsia: “Among them was a four-year-old girl with Down syndrome, Liza, who never made it home from her speech therapy session.” (2022, EDF)

Social media posts chart life and death of girl in Russian strike (2022, the Guardian)

‘Thank You for Not Killing Us’ An ordeal at a mental health facility in Ukraine illuminated the horrors of the Russian occupation, as the facility was taken hostage:

“The siege at the mental health facility dragged on for weeks, during which the building lost heat, water and electricity, and more than a dozen patients lost their lives. What unfolded there represents the depths of despair and at the same time amazing pluck under a brief but harrowing Russian occupation.“ (2022, NYT)

Ukrainians With Disabilities At Breaking Point As Russian Onslaught Bears Down (2022, Forbes)

Russian troops shoot dead disabled Ukrainian volunteer "The Governor claimed that Kononov, who voluntarily provided food, water, medicines, etc., to Ukrainian soldiers fighting pro-Moscow militants in Luhansk, was killed whilst he sat in his wheelchair at his home" (2022, Republic World) See more in Hromadske, in Ukranian. And a tribute from Fight for Right.

Russia hit a psychoneurological institution in Pushcha-Vodytsya, Kyiv Patients and staff were evacuated in advance. (2022, Spravdi)

Russia Shells Kharkiv Care Home for Adults, Children With Disabilities 73 were evacuated and no casualties were reported of the 330 residents. (2022, Business Insider)

A school for the deaf hit, no injuries reported, on weekend of 5th/6th March. (2022, World Federation of the Deaf)

Russian forces take over psychiatric hospital in central Ukraine "Russian forces have taken control of a psychiatric hospital in the town of Borodyanka in Ukraine's Kyiv region, with 670 people inside, the regional governor Oleksiy Kuleba told local media." (2022, Reuters)