The prosecutor general’s office in Ukraine said on Saturday that it had learned of the deaths of 24 more children in Mariupol, the southeastern port that had been besieged for weeks before Russian forces took it in mid-May.
According to the office, at least 287 children have died since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24th. Over 492 people have been injured.
‘During the recording of criminal offences, it was discovered that 24 more children died in Mariupol, Donetsk region, as a result of the Russian military’s indiscriminate shelling,’ the office said on the Telegram messaging app.
‘These figures are not final because work is being done to establish them in active hostilities, temporarily occupied and liberated territories.’
The report could not be independently verified by Reuters.
The mayor of Mariupol, which has been reduced to ruins by the siege, said there is a cholera outbreak in the city because sanitation systems are broken and corpses are rotting in the streets.
Russia has denied targeting civilians and rejects allegations of war crimes in what it calls a ‘special military operation’ to demilitarise and ‘denazify’ Ukraine. Ukraine, according to Kiev and its allies, was invaded without provocation.
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