UNITED NATIONS: United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres called out Russia on Thursday for killing 136 children in Ukraine in 2022, adding its armed forces to a global list of offenders, according to a report to the UN Security Council.

The United Nations also verified that Russian armed forces and affiliated groups maimed 518 children and carried out 480 attacks on schools and hospitals. Russian armed forces also used 91 children as human shields, according to the report.

Russia has denied targeting civilians since it invaded Ukraine on Feb 24, 2022.

The report also verified that Ukrainian armed forces killed 80 children, maimed 175 children and carried out 212 attacks on schools and hospitals. The Ukrainian armed forces are not on the global offenders list.

Report says Russian army, allies maimed 518 children; 480 attacks carried out on schools and hospitals

Guterres said in the report that he was “particularly shocked” by the high number of children killed and maimed and attacks on schools and hospitals by Russian armed forces.

He also said he was “particularly disturbed” by the high number of such offenses against children by Ukrainian armed forces. Russia’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the report.

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

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

Gamba last month visited Ukraine and Russia, where she met with Russia’s envoy for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova — whom the International Criminal Court wants to arrest on war crimes charges.

The International Criminal Court last month issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin and Lvova-Belova, accusing them of illegally deporting children from Ukraine and the unlawful transfer of people to Russia from Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, 2022.

Moscow said the warrants were legally void as Russia was not a signatory to the treaty that established the ICC.

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

Moscow has not concealed a programme under which it has brought thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, but presents it as a humanitarian campaign to protect orphans and children abandoned in the war zone.

Controversial list

The report on children and armed conflict includes the list intended to shame parties to conflicts in the hope of pushing them to implement measures to protect children. It has long been controversial, with diplomats saying Saudi Arabia and Israel exerted pressure in recent years in a bid to stay off the list.

Israel has never been on the list, while a Saudi-led military coalition was removed from the list in 2020 several years after it was first named for killing and injuring children in Yemen.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2023