New Delhi: At least 153 children have died in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, the country’s prosecutor’s office said Friday.
Two hundred and forty five children have been injured in the last five weeks, the new release read.
The office also said bombing had damaged 859 educational institutes, with 83 “completely destroyed”.
Ukrainian officials were still counting the dead, particularly among children, in Mariupol and other areas of Kyiv, Chernihiv and Luhansk regions.
The prosecutor’s office has also initiated over 3,000 criminal cases against Russian soldiers
Adviser to the Ukrainian president Mykhailo Podoliak tweeted: “The Prosecutor Office has already opened 3,457 criminal cases against RF military.” Under the article “violation of the rules & customs of war”, he said.
Podoliak said the worst crimes included killing of citizens, violence, child abuse, and torture.
Though the United Nations estimates figures to be much higher, the official number of deaths and injured in the conflict so far are 1,189 and 1,901 respectively.
UNHCR High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi has said over 3.9 million Ukrainian citizens have fled the country as of March 30. Nearly 2.3 million are in neighbouring Poland, the UNHCR said.
An additional 6.5 million people have been displaced internally, while 13 million are stranded and unable to leave due to security fears and destruction of transport infrastructure.
Also read: One in every two Ukrainian children displaced since Russian invasion, says UNICEF