707 children killed and 2,548 injured in Ukraine in Russia’s full-scale war
Russia has killed 707 children and injured 2,548 more in Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said as the country marked the International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression on June 4.
Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, also said 2,318 children are considered missing. The youngest child killed was only 2 days old — born and killed in a maternity hospital, he said.
Lubinets added that the true figures may be significantly higher because Ukrainian authorities still “do not know the whole truth” from Russian-occupied territories, and because Russia has abducted thousands of Ukrainian children to its own territory.
“Behind every number is a child whose future has been stolen. Russia must be held accountable for these crimes,” Zelenskyy wrote.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko said authorities are currently investigating more than 6,000 criminal cases involving crimes against children and violations in the field of child protection resulting from Russian aggression.
So far, 234 Russian soldiers have been formally charged, and indictments against 108 people have already been sent to court, he said.
Kravchenko cited three cases in which Russian attacks killed Ukrainian children:
- July 14, 2022, Vinnytsia: A Kalibr missile strike hit the city center, killing three children.
- January 14, 2023, Dnipro: A missile destroyed a residential building, killing six children.
- July 8, 2024, Kyiv: Russia deliberately attacked the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital.
The statement also recalled that during Russia’s mass attack on Ukraine on May 25, 2025, three children from the Martyniuk family were killed in Korostyshiv, in Zhytomyr Oblast: 8-year-old Stanislav, 12-year-old Tamara and 17-year-old Roman.