Street children in Ukraine are underage individuals who live and survive in Ukrainian streets without attendance and care of adults. As a rule they are dwelling in landfills, public transit stations, junkyards, or under the bridges of major cities. The country's legal system defines the term "street children" as children who either left their family or have been abandoned by their parents. Violence against them is considered to be a widespread and serious national problem because in Ukraine they can become victims of commercial sexual exploitation, police violence, civil rights abuses and human trafficking.Julia Galustyan The Situation Of Children In Ukraine And Their Vulnerability To Commercial Sexual Exploitation, Ukrainian Institute of Social Research, 2003
