KYIV, UKRAINE (AP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said yesterday that the war in Ukraine, now in its 16th month, has killed at least 500 Ukrainian children.
Zelenskyy provided the number hours after rescue workers found the body of a two-year-old girl who died in one of the latest strikes.
Zelenskyy said it was impossible to establish the exact number of children who were casualties due to the ongoing hostilities. Rescuers found the two-year-old’s body early yesterday while combing through the rubble of an apartment building in the suburbs of the central city of Dnipro.
The regional governor, Serhiy Lysak, said five children were among 22 people injured by Saturday’s attack, which damaged two residential buildings.
The Russians launched more strikes with drones and cruise missiles yesterday, targetting multiple areas of the country, including the capital, Kyiv.
The Ukrainian air force said the country’s air defences downed three of the five Shahed self-exploding drones and four of the six cruise missiles fired.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said two missiles struck a military air base in Kropyvnytskyi, a city in central Ukraine’s Kyrovohrad province. He did not report what damage they caused.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said the military destroyed Ukrainian warplanes and ammunition depots in strikes on Ukrainian airfields, but didn’t give further specifics. The Russian military has reported a series of strikes in recent days on Ukrainian air defence batteries, air bases and troops depots.