500 children have been killed during war in Ukraine, Zelensky says
Around 500 children have been killed during Russia’s 15-month war on Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
“13-year-old Dmytro from Kharkiv, 4-year-old Lisa from Vinnytsia, Serhii from Novosolone who was just 2 days old. They are among five hundred innocent children whose lives were destroyed by Russia’s onslaught,” Zelensky said in a Twitter post.
“Many of them could have become famous scholars, artists, sports champions, contributing to Ukraine’s history. They fell victim to the enemy’s missiles and hate, which keep ravaging and claiming lives of young Ukrainians,” the Kyiv leader said.
Zelensky shared a United24 video featuring gruesome stories of children’s deaths and injuries. The video explains that two-day-old Serhii was killed when Russians shelled a maternity ward in Vilnyansk.
“It is still impossible to establish the exact number of injured children due to active hostilities and the temporary occupation of a part of the Ukrainian territory,” Zelensky said.
A nine-year-old girl was among three people killed just last Thursday in a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
U.S. researchers earlier this year also determined at least 6,000 Ukrainian children had been “systematically relocated” to Russian camps with a focus on “re-education efforts” since the start of the war. Last fall, a United Nations panel documented “cases in which children have been raped, tortured, and unlawfully confined” amid the fighting.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and for Moscow’s commissioner for children’s rights involving allegations of war crimes around the unlawful deportation of children.
Source: The Hill
