Russia’s war against Ukraine caused the deaths of 489 children and young people and injured 1,206, Ukraine’s prosecutor’s office announced on Sunday, on the day the country celebrates Father’s Day.
The most recent cases occurred on Saturday, when a 15-year-old boy and his father were killed by a Russian missile that authorities say hit the car they were traveling in in the Kherson region.
In the same region, a 17-year-old boy was injured as a result of a Russian bombing of the village of Kozatsk, the Ukrainian news agency UKrinform reported.
A shelling “by the forces of the aggressor state” wounded a 9-year-old girl in Kostyantynivka, Donetsk region, also on Saturday, the same agency added.
“According to official information from prosecutors for minors, 489 children were killed and 1,026 were injured in varying degrees of severity,” the prosecutor’s office said in a post on the social network Facebook.
The numbers are not final and work is underway to verify the situation “in the places of hostility, in the temporarily occupied areas and in the liberated areas,” Ukrinform added.
Information about the course of the war released by the two sides cannot immediately be independently verified.
Zelensky thanks all Ukrainian parents
On the occasion of Father’s Day in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a message on the social network Twitter in which he wishes that all fathers who are at war can return home.
“May our parents live long and healthy lives. And may all parents on the front lines return home,” Zelensky wrote on Twitter.
“Thank you to all Ukrainian parents, to all Ukrainian families, to our strong and courageous soldiers who stand up for Ukraine’s independence and fight for Ukraine’s life,” he added.
Zelensky illustrated the message with a video made by United24, a platform he created to collect donations, in which Ukrainian soldiers return home and hug children.
The number of civilian and military casualties from the war in Ukraine, begun by Russia on February 24, 2022, is unknown, but several sources, including the UN, have admitted it will be high.
In its most recent bulletin on Ukraine, the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) confirmed the deaths of 8,983 civilians on June 4 and more than 15,400 injuries.
The UN agency has warned that “actual numbers are significantly higher” given the delay in receiving information and confirming data from places of heavy fighting.
Source: DN
