Ukrainians mourn children killed in Russian invasion

According to the UN, more than 600 children have been killed in Ukraine since the war began in 2022, and another 1,420 have been injured in fighting across the country.

According to the UN, the actual number is likely to be significantly higher.

Speaking at a memorial to children killed in World War II, Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska called on her country’s allies to equip the military with more weapons to repel Russian attacks.

“Help us save our children. We cannot measure the value of their lives by the cost of air defense,” Zelenskaya said at the event in Kyiv, where those present observed a minute’s silence.

In the center of Lviv, a western Ukrainian city spared from fighting with Russian forces, residents hung bells and strips of white cloth on the figure of an angel.

The Kremlin has repeatedly stated that its armed forces do not attack civilians and that supplying Western weapons to Ukraine will only prolong the suffering of civilians.

Earlier this week, a 12-year-old boy was reported among the youngest children killed in a Russian airstrike on the eastern Donetsk region.

A one-month-old boy and a 17-year-old boy were injured by Russian missiles in the frontline Donetsk region early Tuesday, local authorities said.

Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said nearly 800 children have been killed since 2014, when Kremlin-backed separatists began taking over towns and villages in eastern Ukraine.

“That’s 790 universes killed and families grieving,” he said in a social media post.

Denise Brown, UN humanitarian coordinator, said at the event in Kyiv that Russia was “blatantly disregarding” its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

“Russia’s invasion is inflicting immense physical, psychological and emotional harm on children, destroying their lives and endangering their future,” she said.

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