Children Write to Peacekeepers

“Please tell our peacekeeping soldiers to stay healthy and obedient, and wash their hands. We love and look forward to them.” This kind of wishes sounded December 5, on the eve of Ukrainian Armed Forces Day, at the Ground Forces Headquarters which hosted a function named A Letter to the Ukrainian Peacekeeping Soldier. Junior schoolchildren of Kyiv’s Solomyansky district handed Colonel General Petro Shuliak, Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Ground Forces (left in the photo), more than two thousand letters addressed to our servicemen on a mission in Iraq. The function was initiated by the children’s non-governmental organizations Flowers of the Future, Little Bell, and A Special Child, as well as the Kyiv Solomyansky branch of the Union of Afghan War Veterans. It was revealed, however, that it is children themselves who originally came upon the idea of sending letters and drawings to our soldiers in Iraq. For example, six-year-old Olia Holubenko drew a “bear with balloons” for the peacekeepers (after a lengthy questioning of little Olia by a group of journalists, the bear was identified as Winnie-the- Pooh), while third-grader Olha Hrechukha from School No. 166 depicted a bouquet of flowers. Sixth-grader Vadym Chernov (School No. 161) wished the peacekeepers to return home as soon as possible. As his veteran grandfather, deputy chairman of the Union of Afghan War Veterans’ Solomyansky district branch, Mykola Aleksandrenko (right in the photo) noted, this campaign was especially actively supported by the children of those who saw action in Afghanistan. “They have written very many letters to our peacekeepers, are keeping track of the events, keep asking how our soldiers are and when they will come back home,” Mr. Aleksandrenko said. In his opinion, such campaigns are a must because “it is very important that all our people, including children, closely follow in these global events and see the reason why our peacekeepers are stationed there.” The children who wrote letters (it is planned to hand them in to servicemen of the 5th Detached Mechanized Brigade in Iraq as early as December 10) do see the reason why. “They are defending local people and see that they aren’t killed,” third-grader Mykhailo Kedrus said. Then he added, “I wrote to the Ukrainian soldier that he should be strong, healthy, and detain as many bad people as possible.”