NOTE: Yesterday began the rolling blackouts because of Russian destruction of Ukraine’s power grids supplying electricity.
Photo: Youry Bilak has an exhibition called “Dawn, Children of Ukraine.” This is one of his photos.
We associate Jeremiah with “the Weeping Prophet.” Chapter 9 of his prophecy aptly summarizes the causes of his intense sorrow. The chapter begins with these mournful words: “Oh, that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night.” The chapter progresses and describes the devastating calamity striking Judah. The words of verse 21 are poignant: “Death has come up through our windows…to eliminate the children from the streets.”
The fact is undeniable—Russia eliminates Ukrainian children from the streets.
The official number is approaching 2,000. But the psychological wounds are worse. Because of this war of Russian arrogance, thousands of Ukrainian children have lost their lives, and many more have lost their childhood. They seldom laugh, childishly play, or focus on learning. They will never experience school milestones; their schools lie in ruins. The simple joys of childhood are unknown to them.
This is the reason behind the establishment of “The Galaxy Center” in Ivano-Frankivsk. To offer counseling and a safe place for these children. (For information on this Center, search for it on this website.)
The narratives about the children’s tragedy are difficult to read but even more difficult is it to sit and listen to these stories in person. The horrors unfold. I was in Bucha and Irpin soon after Ukraine’s army had driven the Russians back. I talked with many who suffered under the Russian occupation and witnessed its terrors.
Many of these stories are documented by news services. A 16-year-old boy has “lived” in this war for five years. “I can’t escape the feeling that the war is still all around us. I dream about my family being killed or taken hostage by the Russians.” He was evacuated from Irpin in March 2022. His aunt Valentinia’s family evacuated with them at the same time. She and her sister tried to keep the children distracted by playing games or looking at family photographs. But they had to have difficult conversations, especially as they ran low on food supplies. “I’d tell the children that bread and water are the most important things. I had to make them understand that they lived one life before, where they had everything; they went to school and played games. And now they had to learn to live without all that. I told them the time has come for you to grow up.”
A generation of children in Ukraine is cut off from a normal childhood. The UN estimates (in 2023—3 years ago!) that around two-thirds of the country’s 7.8 million children have been displaced.
With incessant drones, glide bombs, and ballistic missiles hitting Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, and other densely populated areas, the children’s displacement has only worsened; their elimination has only progressed.
Today I met with Mykola Kaminsky. We have worked together for many, many years. With the first invasion (2014), we worked to move children out of orphanages in Donetsk, Luhansk, and Mariupol. The full-scale invasion significantly increased this need. In the winter of 2022, we had 600 children from the frontline regions living in a summer camp in Lviv Region. We slowly moved them into family homes that opened to house the children.
The Russian bombardment of Kyiv and Kharkiv this summer killed two of our children who were housed near Kyiv (https://www.kachelman.com/ukraine/blog/2026/08/23/update-august-22-2026-a-sad-discovery/). After that, we began moving children further west. In recent days, three more of our children have been wounded. Mykola says that the Kyiv bombing continues and only about 3 hours of every day are without explosions.
Today Mykola transported 16 children from Kyiv into the western regions. And these were going to the SAME family!
So far, we have moved 260 children from Kyiv and Kharkiv. Mykola has another 65 who desperately need housing in the west.
These children are moved under the strict regulations of martial law, so their identities and families are protected—absolutely no photos, names, or previous homes are allowed to be shared, requested, or given unless approved. There are no exceptions, and violators will be prosecuted. The sad fact is that the majority violating this rule are Americans. Authorities are very good at monitoring social media networks and recording violators. This is why you see “stock photos” for this report, and all other photos are blurred so biometrics in Russia cannot identify families and locations and direct drones.
We want these children to be housed in a family setting. This will help give them the emotional security of “family.” This also helps us avoid keeping these children in a mass group vulnerable to Russian drones.
Mykola is very concerned about providing for these children during the winter. He said he thought he had a donor in Germany who was willing to help provide for the children. The donor said he had $10,000. But the donor wanted the children to be brought to Germany for several weeks. Mykola told him that plan would not work. First, only 20 of the 300+ children would be able to go to Germany using that amount of money. Second, if he was allowed to buy the food and essentials with that amount of money, he could almost cover expenses for the entire winter. Plus, this avoids the entire Polish Customs quagmire, the need for food certificates, and the transportation for distribution.
This validates the point I tried to make on my last trip. Food can be bought over here at a much lower cost than trying to collect food and ship a container from the USA. Several read that fact in my spring trip reports and have sent money for food (the Sun Valley Church of Christ in Gilbert, AZ dedicated one of their weekly collections to buy food!), and it has been used (look at some of the photos from this trip: the tins of canned meat, the bags of flour, the perishables, fruit juices, water, etc.).
Mykola said that we can buy food here and it will allow us to buy TEN TIMES the amount that food shipped in a container costs. A container costs approximately $10,000 to ship plus the cost of purchasing the food. What is the “wise steward” to do with this fact? Will the wise steward provide enough for only 20 when he could provide for many times that number?
There are two pressing pleas:
1. Ukrainian Homes open to receiving the children that are being evacuated from the large cities. These must be willing to refuse requests to take any photos or publish any names or use the children to raise money.
2. Designated funds to help us reach the $10,000 threshold for supplying food and the essentials for the children who have been evacuated.
We are doing everything we can to stop the “elimination of the children from the streets” of Ukraine. We help those families that open their arms for these children. We plead with the brotherhood to join us in this effort! Funds for the children’s essentials can be sent to the Dalraida Church of Christ (P.O. Box 3085, Montgomery, AL 36109), and be sure to mark it children’s food.
“Through your prayers” (Phlm 22), this trip will see multiple successes as “doors of opportunity” open (Colossians 4:3)!
Thank you for your constant prayers!
John L. Kachelman, Jr., UKRAINE MISSIONS, Dalraida Church of Christ, Montgomery, AL
