"War children" culminated on July 6 with a concert at Dzintari in Jūrmala, where the Russian pop music festival New Wave would have been held this time of the year.
Ināra Mūrniece, Speaker of the Saeima and patroness of the initiative, said "This is a very special evening. The authors of the idea of the concert, the organizers and participants have all said that they want to help bleeding hearts. To allay the physical and even more so the emotional pain felt by those least defended - the children who have suffered during the war in Ukraine."
Oksana Syroyid, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada said that "Talking about children suffering in the 21st century is not just hard - it's unbearable," saying that it's surreal that war can still be a cause for children's suffering in this day and age.
UNICEF data says that from 5 million inhabitants of Ukraine who have suffered from Russia's aggression in Donbass, about 1.7 million are children. The World Health Association data for this year's May states that 68 children have died in the war in Donbass, 167 have been wounded and at least 150 thousand have been forced to leave their home in Donbass and move to other, safer regions of Ukraine. Thousands have become orphaned, losing one or both of their parents.
The concert was held by a number of artists from Latvia and Ukraine, including the youth choir "Kamēr", Inese Galante, Oleksijs Demčenko, Arturs Maskats, and others.
The concert will be translated on Latvian Television on July 11 21:20 GMT+3, with streaming available worldwide on the LTV website. LSM Latvian portal will also hold a discussion about the current events in Ukraine and how the donations will be used.
