This continued to create hardship for many older people in accessing their pensions those unable to regularly cross due to health or mobility issues could not access their pensions at all. The government continued discriminatory policies requiring people living in Russian proxy-held areas to register as internally displaced and regularly travel to, and maintain residence in, governmental areas in order to access social benefits. Throughout six years of conflict, 147 children were killed. The leading causes were shelling by artillery and mortars, fire from light weapons, landmines, and explosive remnants of war.īetween January and May 2019, attacks on schools on both sides of the contact line tripled compared with the same period in 2018. In November, Ukraine became the 100th country to endorse the Safe Schools Declaration, an international political commitment to make schools safe during times of war.Ģ019 saw a significant decrease in civilian casualties. Ukraine turned over 124 people and the armed groups released 76.

Eleven prisoners held by Russia on politically motivated charges, including Oleg Sentsov, Edem Bekirov, Pavlo Hryb, Olexander Kolchenko, Roman Sushenko, and 24 Ukrainian sailors Russia captured in the Kerch strait in 2018, were part of the swap. Another major prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia-backed armed groups took place in December 2019.

In September, Russia and Ukraine exchanged a total of 70 prisoners. In 2019, environment for media in Ukraine remained unsafe. After taking office, Zelensky demonstrated commitment to carrying out anti-corruption reform and ending the armed conflict with Russia. Snap parliamentary elections in July delivered his party, Servant of the People, a single-party parliamentary majority, for the first time since Ukraine’s independence. Former comedian Volodymyr Zelensky won the presidential election in May. Hostilities in eastern Ukraine entered their sixth year and continued to put civilians’ lives and well-being at risk, even as absolute numbers of civilian casualties dropped.

What is happening in ukraine 2020