United Nations (AP)-Nearly two-thirds of Ukrainian children have fled their homes in the six weeks following Russia’s invasion and the UN has verified the deaths of 142 teenagers, although it is certain the number is higher, according to UN data on children. The agency said Monday.
Manuel Fontaine, Director of UNICEF’s Emergency Programs, who recently returned from Ukraine, said that 4.8 million of Ukraine’s 7.5 million children were internally displaced in a very short period of time, “quite unbelievably”. He said it was something he had never seen happen so quickly in 31 years of humanitarian work.
“They were forced to leave everything: homes, schools and often family members,” he told the UN Security Council. “I have heard stories of desperate steps parents are taking to save their children, and the children are sad that they will not be able to go back to school.
Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Sergi Kislitsa, said that Russia had released more than 121,000 children from Ukraine and reportedly drafted a bill that would simplify and speed up adoption procedures for children . orphans as well as those with parents and other relatives. He said most of the children were removed from the besieged southern port city of Mariupol and taken to eastern Donetsk, and then to the Russian city of Taganrog.
Fontaine said UNICEF heard the same news, but added that “we still don’t have the access we need to see and check to see if we can help.”
According to him, 2.8 million displaced children in Ukraine are in Ukraine and 2 million abroad. At the same time, he said, nearly half of the approximately 3.2 million children still in their homes in Ukraine “may be at risk of not having enough food,” while besieged cities like Mariupol are at their worst.
Fontaine said school closures are affecting the education of 5.7 million children and 1.5 million students.
“Hundreds of schools and educational institutions were attacked or used for military purposes,” he said. “Others serve as shelters for civilians.”
The Council also heard from UN Executive Director for Women Sima Bahus, who recently returned from Moldova to host about 95,000 Ukrainian refugees.
Bahus said his agency is hearing more and more allegations of rape and sexual assault. He said the Moldovan government and border police were also extremely concerned about the risk of human trafficking, particularly against young women and fellow adults.
“The combination of mass displacement with the large presence of conscripts and mercenaries and the brutality displayed to the Ukrainian civilian population has raised all red flags,” he said.
The Ukrainian ambassador said his country’s prosecutor’s office was now investigating a case in the Kiev region in which a Russian soldier allegedly killed a local resident and then repeatedly raped his wife. in their home. He said the alleged culprit has been identified.
According to Kislitsa, the attorney general’s office, in collaboration with investigation agencies and health institutions, is also working on a “special mechanism” to investigate cases of sexual violence by Russian soldiers.
A Security Council meeting on the effects of the war on women and children was convened by the United States and Albania during the body’s British presidency.
Three countries, Ukraine and other members of the Council, attacked Russia for creating a difficult situation for women and children, which was directly denied by Russian Deputy Ambassador Dmitry Polyansky.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield said that when men like Russian President Vladimir Putin “start wars, women and children flee”, they cause disease, rape and violence and die.
“After the start of Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine, Russia bombed orphanages and maternity homes,” he said. “We saw mass graves where dead children were piled on top of each other.”
Albanian Ambassador Ferit Khoja accused Russia of committing “unspeakable crimes” on a daily basis, including burning civilians, dumping corpses in mass graves, dumping playgrounds, deliberately attacking schools and torture of all Ukrainians, especially women and children. .
“In ordinary life, children paint their parents, houses and trees. “The Russian war forced young Ukrainians to draw bombs, tanks and weapons,” Khoja said.
The US and Albanian ambassadors, and many others, reported the discovery of the bodies, some of them handcuffed in the back, in the city of Bucha, outside Kiev, after the departure of the troops. Russian, and a rocket to at least kill. they .. 52 mostly women and children at the railway station in East Kramatorsk. Khoja mentioned that the rocket has a “vicious signature” for our children.
Russian Polyansky accused the “Ukrainian Nazis” of killing civilians in Bucha and bombing the Kramatorsk station, which he called “Operation Classic False Flag”.
He accused Ukraine and its PR experts, along with the West, of promoting “fakes and propaganda” in an “information war against Russia”.
“This war is as intense as military operations on the ground,” he said.
Lord Tariq Ahmed, British Minister of State for the United Nations, who presided over the meeting, responded that Russia was still trying to distance itself from the truth on the ground “in what could be seen as extraordinary statements and even that lies. “
“However, the truth is that Russia’s attacks on civilians and homes are truly barbaric,” he said.
Source: Huffpost
