Russian war in Ukraine: Russia kills 631 children, left 1,975 injured and 3,000 missing

The lawyer of the NGO Regional Center for Human Rights Kateryna Rashevska told this on Espreso TV.

"Any war is a war against children. Maiming and killing children is a war crime of the Russian Federation. It is important that such crimes are not forgotten, are properly prosecuted, and the perpetrators are brought to justice," Rashevska emphasized.

According to the lawyer, it is necessary to end this war with a victory for Ukraine and never return to it.

"Unfortunately, we have short-term consequences of the Russian aggression, which are already reflected in terrible figures: 631 children killed, 1975 children injured as a result of this aggression. And believe me, these are not the final figures, because, unfortunately, we do not have access to the occupied territories. We have about 3 thousand children with the status of missing persons. We do not fully understand how many of them have been abducted and which ones, unfortunately, have already lost their lives.

Most of the children, about 90%, suffered explosive injuries. These are all those Russian missiles, Russian drones that are flying into peaceful, mostly sleeping Ukrainian cities, playgrounds, schools and killing our children," Rashevska said.

The lawyer also added that Ukrainians will feel the consequences of the war for a long time, and so will our children.

"One of the main dangers is mines. About 23% of the territory of Ukraine is mined. And 6% of the children who were killed or injured were injured by mines. That is why it is very important that we have mine safety and that children know how to avoid such threats, as Russia deliberately mines the territory. Russians mined children's toys while fleeing from Ukrainian soil. So we need to prevent such negative consequences," Rashevska summarized.

• Compared to the data for 2023, in 2024 the number of children affected by Russian aggression since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine increased by half.