President Trump has made it clear he’s siding with Vladimir Putin in the war in Ukraine, thereby endorsing the Kremlin leader’s sustained targeting of defenseless civilians in his campaign of annihilation.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights puts the number of Ukrainian civilian casualties – dead and injured – at more than 40,000 since Russia launched its full-scale invasion three years ago this Monday.
UNICEF says, as of last November, more than 2,400 Ukrainian children have been killed or wounded since the war’s outbreak. “The toll on children is staggering and unacceptable,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell has said. “Children have been killed in their beds, in hospitals and playgrounds, leaving families devastated by the loss of young lives or life-altering injuries.”
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Evgeny Afineevsky documents the war’s toll on Ukrainian children in his searing new documentary Children in the Fire, which just held a private screening at the Munich Security Conference last weekend (the very conference where Vice President J.D. Vance lectured European governments about allowing the far-right greater sway in politics).
Yana runs on specially-designed blades after losing her limbs in a Russian bombing raid
Unbroken Generation Production
“I have human stories and specifically stories of the kids — the next generation of Ukrainians,” Afineevsky tells Deadline of his film. “And it’s not just the next generation, it’s for whom the fathers today are fighting on the frontlines. I have the strongest and the most resilient stories of these kids.”
Afineevsky profiles children from all over Ukraine who suffered grim injuries. Yana, 12, was at a train station with her mother in Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region when the station was hit by Russian bombers. Yana lost both her legs below the knees; her mother lost a limb. Yana uses prosthetics now and has taken up running with specially made blades.
Roman, 8, was visiting a medical clinic with his mother in Vinnytsia when the building was struck by Russian missiles. He was severely burned on 40 percent of his body; his mother was killed. He has resumed playing the accordion and harmonica, and recently began participating in ballroom dancing competitions.
Sasha, a gymnast who lost a limb to a Russian missile attack
Unbroken Generation Production
Sasha, 7, an aspiring gymnast, was staying in a house in the Zatoka area of Odessa that got hit by a Russian missile. Her mother dug her out from under debris and Sasha remained in a coma for 15 days. Her left leg had to be amputated. Despite her injury, she has returned to her gymnastics training and has won several competitions.
“You see this determination on the younger generation,” Afineevsky marvels. “You can see the younger generation of Ukrainians that have been through hell, went through so many things and despite all of that, there’s still having hope. They’re strong, they’re resilient… They are fighters.”
Animation showing the attack on the railway station at Kramatorsk that severly injured Yana, 12
Unbroken Generation Production
Children in the Fire includes diary entries composed by kids as their country was torn apart. Valeriia, 17, from Nova Kakhovka, writes of imagining her journal being found under rubble. “I thought I would never survive,” she notes, “and that this diary would be my story.”
More than half of the film is animated, based on real footage. That helps to soften some of the graphic imagery, but the director says his primary intent was to allow viewers to experience the perspectives of kids.
“It’s not just a live action documentary. It’s a live action mixed with animation,” Afineevsky observes. “I try to show some elements through their imaginations, through their reality.”
Front row L-R Oleg Kulchytskyi (film’s sound re-recording mixer and sound designer), Valeriia Sydorova, Roman Oleksiv, Veronika Vlasova, Vladislav Buriak; behind Roman is director/producer Evgeny Afineevsky
Unbroken Generation Production
Several of the children seen in the documentary attended the screening at the Munich Security Conference, along with many dignitaries. “Men were crying,” the filmmaker reports. “They were moved; they were crying. The father of Roman [the boy who was burned] was crying with him as well. It was interesting to see the emotions. The president of the World Congress of Ukrainians from Toronto, he said that he was missing Kleenex because he was crying all the time.”
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) addresses a screening of ‘Children in the Fire’ in conjunction with the Munich Security Conference
Among those attending the screening was Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), a member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, who previously served as chairman of the committee. Speaking to the audience from the stage in Munich, he told Afineevsky, “Evgeny, this film is absolutely compelling and disturbing. And I wish that every American could watch this documentary… People need to see the atrocities because there’s no [greater] crime than the atrocities against the innocent children.”
McCaul also offered counsel to anyone in American government who would support or appease Putin and Russia in its war of aggression on Ukraine.
“I appeal to my colleagues in the United States Congress to remember where they came from, remember what they stand for. Remember, you want to be on the right side of history,” Rep. McCaul said. “…[S]upporting Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty from a dictator puts us on the right side of history. We’re not a Neville Chamberlain with Hitler. We are Churchill.”
Pres. Trump has taken the Chamberlain line vis-à-vis Putin, according to many critics, adopting the Kremlin’s language regarding Ukraine. On Friday, he continued his attacks on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying the Ukrainian leader didn’t deserve a seat at peace talks initiated this week by the Trump administration and Putin. “I don’t think he’s very important to be at meetings, to be honest with you,” Trump told a Fox News Radio show Friday. “He makes it very hard to make deals. But look what’s happened to his country, it’s been demolished.”
Unbroken Generation Production
Afineevsky, who has made three films about Ukraine – Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom (2015), Freedom on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom (2020), and now Children in the Fire, says Ukraine must be included in any peace talks.
“I think when you’re trying to negotiate this, all parties have to be involved,” he says. “Since it’s the future of Ukraine, since it’s everything about Ukraine, Ukraine must be there. So, that’s my opinion… I’m voicing this as a filmmaker and as an American citizen whom actually President Trump is representing today.”
He adds, “It can’t be the future of Ukraine decided between Russia, who started this war, and America who was two months ago giving the biggest aid to Ukraine, and today everything is flipped. Ukraine is isolated from these negotiations and America is taking basically the wheel of this car to decide the future of Ukraine. It’s impossible… Today there is a president, legitimate president [Zelenskyy] who is representing the people of this country and who should be part of these negotiations.”
Afineevsky says he’s working to set up festival premieres for Children in the Fire.
“It’s important for me to try to bring it through the festival windows into the bigger world, establish the audience,” he says, “and then to find the proper distribution to bring the movie to the larger audience.”
He notes the theme of the film applies to a much wider territory than Ukraine alone. “It also can be translated to our kids who are under the guns in the schools in America, it’s kids in Syria who’ve been through this conflict for a long time. It’s the kids in all other places, in all other wars, in Sudan, it’s everywhere. I think it’s important to bring this image and these stories and to show what kids are suffering.”
