UN Says Russia Kills 136 Children and Injures 518 Others in Ukraine Throughout 2022

Ukrainian children take refuge in Kyiv's underground buildings to avoid Russian attacks. (Wikimedia Commons/MVS.go.Ua/Dhit

JAKARTA - United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has criticized Russia for killing 136 children in Ukraine throughout 2022, adding its military to a global list of offenders, according to a report to the Security Council.

The United Nations also verified that the Russian armed forces and groups affiliated with them injured 518 children, and carried out 480 attacks on schools and hospitals. The report also said the country's armed forces used 91 children as human shields.

On the other hand, the report also verified the Ukrainian armed forces had killed 80 children, injured 175 others, and carried out 212 attacks on schools and hospitals. However, the Ukrainian armed forces are not on the global offenders list.

Guterres said in the report he was "deeply shocked" by the high number of children killed and injured, as well as attacks on schools and hospitals by Russian armed forces.

He also said he was "deeply disturbed" by the high number of violations against children by the Ukrainian armed forces.

Guterres' annual report to the 15-member Security Council on children and armed conflict covers killing, abuse, sexual abuse, abduction or recruitment of children, denial of access to assistance, and targeting of schools and hospitals.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. (Wikimedia Commons/U.S. Mission/Eric Bridiers)

UN report on children and armed conflict verifies the abduction of 91 children by Russian armed forces; all were later released. The report also verified the transfer of 46 children from Russia to Ukraine.

The report was prepared by Virginia Gamba, Guterres' special representative for children and armed conflict.

Gamba last month visited Ukraine and Russia, where he met Russia's envoy for children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova - who was the target of an arrest by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) last month issued arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Lvova-Belova, accusing them of the illegal deportation of children from Ukraine and the illegal transfer of persons to Russia from Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24, 2022.

Meanwhile, Moscow said the warrant was not legally valid because Russia was not a signatory to the agreement that made up the ICC.

Russia has denied targeting civilians since it invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Russia's UN mission in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

Moreover, Moscow does not hide the program in which it has brought thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, but presents it as a humanitarian campaign to protect orphans and children left in war zones.

It is known that the report as a whole verifies that 24,300 violations have been committed against children in 2022.

Most violations were verified in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories, Somalia, Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and Yemen.

"While non-state armed groups are responsible for 50 percent of grave violations, government forces are the main perpetrators of killing and maiming children, attacks on schools and hospitals, and denial of humanitarian access," Guterres said in the report.