A small group of Ukrainian child survivors of war will address a private session of the UN security council on Friday, part of an effort by Kyiv to remind Americans of the human costs of a conflict increasingly affected by US domestic politics, The Guardian reports.
Those due to address the UN body, a stop on a broader visit to the US, include Kira, 14, and Ilya, 11, from the besieged city of Mariupol, and the hope is that their personal stories will resonate with Republicans at a time when a military aid for Ukraine package is stalled in the House.
Quoting a US report, The Guardian added that Ukraine’s prosecutor general estimates that 528 children have been killed since the full-scale invasion began almost two years ago and 2,134 are missing. Another 19,500 are believed to have been abducted and taken to Russia, with some being forcibly re-educated with a “pro-Russia patriotic and military-related education”, a US report said.
The international criminal court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Russia’s children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, in March 2023, arguing there were grounds to suspect they bore responsibility for the “unlawful deportation” of thousands of children.