Ukrainian children.Photo: NIKOLAY DOYCHINOV/AFP via Getty
More than 100 children have been killed since Russia launched itsattack against Ukraineon Feb. 24, a Ukrainian official reportedly said Wednesday.
In an update posted to Telegram, Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova said at least 103 children have died and 100 have been wounded in the ongoing war,according toThe Washington Post. Echoing other assessments, her office warned that the death toll was likely much higher and that it was difficult to determine precise numbers amid the fighting.
Most children were killed in the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kherson, the prosecutor’s office said, adding that Russian bombs and shelling have damaged more than 400 educational institutions, including schools, and that 59 of those were destroyed.
Attacks also hit medical and rehabilitation facilities, including for children with disabilities, according to thePost’s report on the prosecutor general’s update, which requested evidence and information to document possible Russian war crimes.
Venediktova called for a United Nations special mission to determine if children’s rights were violated during the war, her office said.
Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilian sites.
Refugees fleeing Ukraine board a train to Budapest at the Zahony train station on March 7 in Zahony, Hungary.Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (OHCHR) also released new numbers oncivilian casualties in Ukraine, reporting that 691 people have been killed and 1,143 were injured.
The OHCHR said it believed “actual figures are considerably higher,” citing delays in the information gathering in locations “where intense hostilities have been going on.”
Those figures include 48 children killed and 62 children injured.
So far, more than3 million people have fled Ukraineto escape the violence, according to the U.N., which said half are children.
“Every day, over the past 20 days, in Ukraine more than 70,000 children have become refugees,” the United Nations Children’s Fundspokesperson James Elder saidon Tuesday. “That’s every minute, 55 children fleeing the country.”
Dan Kitwood/Getty
Russia’sattack on Ukrainecontinues three weeks after their forces launched a large-scale invasion on Feb. 24 — the first major land conflict in Europe in decades.
With NATO forces massing in the region around Ukraine, various countries have also pledged aid or military support to the resistance. Ukraine PresidentVolodymyr Zelenskyycalled for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.
Putin insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Zelenskyy vowed not to bend.
“Nobody is going to break us, we’re strong, we’re Ukrainians,“he told the European Unionin a speech in the early days of the fighting, adding, “Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness.”
source: people.com
