Since the first Russian soldiers stepped onto Ukrainian territory on February 24 last year, 461 children have been killed as a result of their attacks, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office has claimed.
In addition, they said, 920 have “received injuries of various degrees of severity”, while the National Police of Ukraine has said there have been 9,764 reports of missing children.
The worst affected area for child deaths and injuries is in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, which has been the site of the most intense fighting for at least the last five months.
In a post on Telegram, the prosecutor’s office said: “As of the morning of February 8, 2023, more than 1,381 children were affected in Ukraine as a result of the full-scale armed aggression of the Russian Federation.
“According to the official information provided by juvenile prosecutors, 461 children were killed and more than 920 received injuries of various degrees of severity.”
They added that these figures are likely an underestimate as work is still underway in areas of active hostilities, while Russian-occupied territories cannot be reached.
They added that, in addition, regular air strikes and shelling of civilian infrastructure and residential areas by the Russian armed forces damaged 3,126 educational institutions, of which, 337 were completely destroyed.