Dear Colleagues,

Our journal devotes intense efforts to children’s health worldwide. This passion drives our daily clinical work, research activity, teaching endeavors and editorial commitments. We hoped that the health catastrophe of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic would have been able to demonstrate that, as a sole humanity, we are all intricately linked, and if one suffers, all of us do. However, even before this pandemic reaches an end, the Russian invasion and war in Ukraine are now perpetrating destruction, pain, and death. As health professionals devoted to children, we cannot remain untouched by such atrocities.

The consequences of war on children are horrible and multifaceted (Table 1). War affects children of attacked countries, children of attacking countries, and even children of countries not actively involved in the conflict.

Table 1 Main events associated with war, probable consequences on children and possible solutions. Some aspects concern only Ukrainian or Russian children, whereas other potentially all children worldwide
Full size table

In the short term, children of attacked countries bear disproportionate consequences of war. They undergo higher-energy tissue injuries than adults and massive burns, leading to higher mortality [1, 2]. Health care disruption leads to a lack of medicines and halts routine preventive care, including childhood vaccinations. During the war, the lack of medical care terribly affects ill children, and further privations and violence may increase these events in refugee conditions [3, 4]. In the medium-long term, the consequences of family separation, poverty, lack of sanitation, school, friendships, security represent additional burdens and can lead to post-traumatic stress disorders [5].

Also, children from attacking countries are at risk of major consequences: poverty, stigmatization, relatives’ losses, and lack of peaceful and constructive education. These experiences may lead to enduring health problems and affect their life trajectory. There is even the possibility that the current suffering of children from both attacked and attacking countries might stimulate new conflicts in the future.

Finally, even children outside the conflict area suffer. Parents, educators, and health professionals face many challenges in explaining war to children, including: how to deal with the feelings of sadness, helplessness and uncertainty across the world, and how to anticipate a possible recrudescence of SARS-CoV-2, for which migration and overcrowding provide fertile soil for disease spread and mutation development [6].

An increasing number of children in Ukraine are dying every day as a consequence of this terrible war [7], and many other children worldwide are suffering due to this situation. We express our solidarity with all caregivers worldwide who stand up for children's fundamental rights to security and reasonable care in dangerous conditions and at the risk of their own lives and freedom. Meanwhile, we must prepare to face the catastrophic consequences of this war. Pediatricians worldwide will need to offer additional help to support the physical and mental health of refugee children and their families. Shared efforts, efficient use of limited resources, fund-raising initiatives and innovative ideas will be required from all of us. Action to tackle these needs, as well as pertinent research, are urgently needed. Numerous Ukrainian refugees have arrived in many European countries, and we need to benefit from the lessons learned in previous migrant waves [8]. We will continue our daily clinical, research, teaching and editorial work, convinced today more than ever that “whoever preserves a single life, is considered to have spared a complete world” [9].