05/04/2022 15:55

Commissioner: As a result of racist actions in Ukraine, children die every day, educational and medical institutions are destroyed

As of 10 o'clock on April 5, 2022, according to the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations, as well as other sources that need confirmation, since the beginning of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, 165 children died (+4 per day) and 266 children were injured (+2 per day).

It is impossible to establish the actual number of dead and wounded children due to the fact that the occupying forces are actively fighting in Ukrainian cities.

It became known that during the occupation of the village  Vorzel of Kyiv region, the aggressor's militants threw a smoke grenade into the basement of one of the houses where a 14-year-old child and a woman were staying, after which they fired on a child and his mother.

Russian troops continue to shell Mykolayiv, which is prohibited by the 1949 Geneva Convention and the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Cluster Munitions and on Their Destruction by Cluster Munitions.  Civilian quarters came under enemy fire: an orphanage, 11 kindergartens, 12 schools, 1 vocational school, 2 branches of out-of-school educational institutions and medical institutions.  One child died as a result of the shelling of a children's hospital.

The enemy systematically continues to destroy Ukraine's civilian infrastructure.  So far, 869 educational institutions have been damaged by bombing and shelling during the Russian invasion, 83 of which have been completely destroyed.

I appeal to the UN Commission for Investigation Human Rights Violations during Russia's Military Invasion of Ukraine and the expert mission set up by the OSCE participating States under the Moscow Mechanism to take into account these war crimes and crimes against humanity and human rights in Ukraine.

I call on international partners to close the skies over Ukraine and provide weapons to fight the aggressor country of Russia!