500 children have been killed during Russia’s war with Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
The Ukrainian president shared the figure hours after rescue workers found the body of a two-year-old girl who died in a Russian strike on Saturday.
Two other children were killed during the bombardment of Kyiv on Thursday, amid an increase in attacks on Ukraine’s capital city with 17 missile strikes during the month of May.
Mr Zelensky said that ‘Russian weapons and hatred, which continue to take and destroy the lives of Ukrainian children every day’, had killed the hundreds who had perished since Russia’s invasion began last February.
He continued: ‘Many of them could have become famous scholars, artists, sports champions, contributing to Ukraine’s history.’
‘We must hold out and win this war!
‘All of Ukraine, all our people, all our children, must be free from the Russian terror.’
Mr Zelensky said it was impossible to establish the exact number of children killed because there are still some areas under Russian occupation.
Rescuers found the two-year-old’s body in the rubble of two residential buildings in the suburbs of the city of Dnipro.
The regional governor said five children were among 22 people injured in Saturday’s attack.
Russia launched more drones and cruise missile strikes on Sunday, targeting Kyiv as well as other parts of Ukraine.
Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said two missiles struck a military air base in Kropyvnytskyi, a city in central Ukraine’s Kyrovohrad province.
The Russian military said it has conducted a series of strikes in recent days on Ukrainian air defence batteries, air bases and troop depots.
Concerns about the safety of civilians have increased after officials found nearly a quarter of 4,800 air raid shelters were locked or unusable.
A 33-year-old woman in Kyiv died on Thursday while waiting outside a shuttered shelter.
Four people were arrested as part of the criminal investigation into her death and a security guard who allegedly failed to unlock the doors remained in custody.
Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said the city had received more than 1,000 complaints about locked, dilapidated or insufficient air raid shelters.
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