«You're just a prisoner»: lawyer shows how children are held in Mykolaiv regional hospital, where the Ombudsman's Office found violations

Inna Miroshnychenko, an orphans' rights activist and lawyer, showed the conditions in which children live in the reorganised Centre for Medical Rehabilitation and Palliative Care in Mykolaiv (Regional Children's Home). She showed children tied to chairs, not allowed to go for walks and forced to spend time watching TV.

She posted the footage from the institution on her Instagram.

It should be noted that in April 2024, the Centre for Medical Rehabilitation and Palliative Care was merged with the Mykolaiv Oblast Children's Hospital. At the time, this decision was explained by the need to «protect» the institution from lack of funding.

The human rights activist said that according to the conditions, 89 employees were supposed to take care of the children. However, as it turned out from the data of the monitoring group of the Ombudsman's Office, only two employees were looking after the children. She called the conditions in which the children were kept inhumane.

In addition, she said, criminal proceedings have been opened over the incident.

«The budget is almost 23 million hryvnias. 89 employees. For 20 children. Inhumane conditions. Children are tied up so as not to interfere. Complete neglect and disregard. Zero rehabilitation services, although children are in dire need of it. A non-working shelter. No walks. «Disabled people, nobody needs them». Warehouses of humanitarian aid. Expired medicines. This is Mykolaiv, baba... this is Mykolaiv... the regional orphanage. We will help these children. We are already helping. A criminal case has been opened. The children's rights will be protected. But tomorrow I will share another institution that is no less shocking... Unfortunately...,» Inna Miroshnychenko wrote.

«You're just a prisoner. You sit like that all day long, so as not to disturb anyone. When you grow up, they'll put you in front of a cartoon. You'll live like that. And then no one will know why you have such profound developmental disabilities. Because in fact, you had no access to anything... Your brain did not develop. Your body did not develop. All children are so isolated. And everyone is silently swaying. They calm them down. I'm serious. Everyone just sits there. No one goes for a walk. I mean, no one walks at all. Needless to say, all the kids are depressed and have self-harm,» she added.

In addition, the lawyer found alcoholic beverages in the drawers of the institution's employees.

The editorial office of NikVesti tried to get a comment on this situation from representatives of local authorities, in particular

• Yurii Hranaturov, deputy head of the Mykolaiv Regional Medical Administration;
• Anton Tabunschyk, head of the Mykolaiv Regional Council;
• Iryna Tkachenko, acting head of the regional healthcare department;
• Oleksandr Plitkin, chief physician of the Mykolaiv Oblast Children's Hospital, which includes the Centre for Medical Rehabilitation and Palliative Care (Children's Home).
• the press service of the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration.

However, we have not yet received a response.

The editors sent them the following questions: Whether an internal investigation has been conducted, whether those responsible for the situations reported by the Ombudsman's Office have been brought to justice, whether the heads of the institutions have appealed about the underfunding, why this situation became known only after the publication of the Ombudsman's report, and how they plan to solve the problem of logistical support for the institutions, if any.

On 3 March, it became known that the monitoring group of the Ombudsman's Office, together with NGOs, inspected children's educational institutions in Mykolaiv region and found gross violations of children's rights. The children were fixed with belts to chairs and strollers, and a six-month-old baby suffered swelling from «tying». In other institutions, children were given expired medicines, did not receive medical care and had limited access to basic services.