Russia-Ukraine war: 400 children killed in war, says Ukrainian prosecutor general

The office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general said over the weekend that over 400 children had so far been killed in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Officials have also estimated that at least 800 children have so far been wounded in the war.

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office said Saturday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led to at least 437 children getting killed. Officials said that over 837 children have also been wounded in the war. However, the number was not yet final as they were still verifying information from zones where the fighting is taking place as well as in reclaimed areas and territories that Russia still occupies.

The office said that the Donetsk region had the most casualties, with 423 children killed or injured.

This follows the United Nations report that at least 16,295 civilians were killed since Russia invaded Ukraine back on February 24, in what Kyiv and the West have condemned as an unprovoked act of aggression. Moscow has denied targeting civilians.

Friday last week, researchers from Yale University released a report backed by the US State Department and found that hundreds of people were detained or went missing in the newly reclaimed Kherson region when it was under Russian occupation. The report also said that dozens of Kherson residents may have also been tortured when the territory was still controlled by Russia.

“Russia must halt these operations and withdraw its forces to end a needless war that it cannot and will not win – no matter how despicable or desperate its tactics,” said the State Department in a statement regarding the report.

The report by Yale researchers documented the disappearances of 226 people in Kherson between March and October. Among the 226 people, a quarter of whom was subject to torture, and five were dead in custody or shortly after.

The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab issued a report in collaboration with the State Department-funded program, the Conflict Observatory, that was launched in May. The lab’s executive director Nathaniel Raymond said the report corroborated warnings from the US ahead of the conflict of Russia’s use of capture and kill lists against civilians.