Russian aggression has killed over 800 children in Ukraine since 2014 – Prosecutor General Kostin

Since the war began in 2014, the Russian Federation has killed over 800 children in Ukraine. During the full-scale invasion, at least 551 Ukrainian children were killed, and the occupying forces injured 1,368.

The Prosecutor General's Office reports this.

According to juvenile prosecutors, more than 1,919 children were injured in Ukraine as a result of the full-scale armed aggression of the Russian Federation.

As of the morning of June 4, 2024, according to the official information of juvenile prosecutors:

• 551 children have died,
• over 1,368 have sustained varying degrees of injuries.

The regions that were most impacted were Donetsk, with 536 children affected, Kharkiv with 389, Kherson with 152, Dnipropetrovsk with 143, Kyiv with 130, Zaporizhzhia with 108, and Mykolaiv with 107.

^{Photo: Telegram / Office of the Prosecutor General}

The latest discovered facts of crimes against children:

• On June 3, as a result of the shelling of the village, a 12-year-old boy died in Mykhailivka, Donetsk region;
• On June 4, as a result of shelling in the city of Dnipro, boys were injured, one one month old and the other 17 years old.

As the Prosecutor General notes, the war in Ukraine began not in 2022 but in 2014.

"Since then, Russia has taken the lives of more than 800 Ukrainian children. We still do not know the true scale of the crimes committed in the occupied territories, to which we do not have access," Kostin emphasizes.

According to him, as of now, 3,800 criminal proceedings are under investigation:

• 54 persons who committed crimes against children were identified, and suspicions were announced against them:
• in 43 criminal proceedings, the investigation was completed, and the guilty verdicts were handed over to the court.
• thirty-one people have already been convicted of war crimes against children.

"In the case of deportations, we continue our daily cooperation with the Prosecutor's Office of the International Criminal Court, which opened a field office in Kyiv last year. We constantly exchange evidence and information. The arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court are only the first result," the Prosecutor General emphasized.

As Kostin noted, seven suspects in the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children were identified as part of the national prosecution. Among them is a member of the Russian parliament and a person close to the leader of the Just Russia party.

The Prosecutor General added that they are also working on returning the children home in addition to punishing the guilty.

"The international coalition, created for this purpose as part of the implementation of President Zelensky's Peace Formula, includes more than 36 countries and is actively working. We already have results: the return of groups of children," the Prosecutor General concluded.

For reference:

As Rubryka reported, in the words of President Volodymyr Zelensky, every child, regardless of nationality, deserves safety and the chance to live independently and pursue their dreams with their loved ones.

Moreover, in Lviv, the children's Dance Theater "Zhyttia" studio released the clip "The Right to Live" from its youngest members.