Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska had a grim update for attendees of the “Fight for the Future, Ukrainian Children at War” event held at the 78th UN General Assembly, it was noted in a Sept. 20 press release.
The special event focused on the numerous war crimes committed by Russian soldiers against Ukrainian children.
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 504 children have been confirmed dead, thousands more have been wounded, and at least 19,000 have been kidnapped.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office has also recorded 231 cases of sexual violence by the Russian military that involved at least 13 children. All the above figures are likely to be significantly undercounted.
“Using the opportunity, I appealed to the representatives of the UN and the entire organization to make efforts to save Ukrainian children. So that those 13 children, about whom we know for sure about sexual violence, are not forgotten, and their stories are verified by the UN,” Zelenska said.
“When childhood is threatened in one country, it is threatened everywhere. When children return from captivity or recover from injury or the loss of loved ones, they often ask, “Why did this happen to me? How can this be?” No one knows what to answer.”
The event was held with the support of Estonia and with the participation of the country’s president, Alar Karis. In addition to the First Lady, Ukraine was represented at the event by Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin, the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, as well as Olena Rozvadovska from the Children’s Voices NGO.
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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
