The Ukrainian government said on Friday that dozens of children have been killed during Russia's invasion of the country.
Daria Herasymchuk, Ukraine's presidential adviser on children's rights, announced that 28 children had been killed and 64 wounded, while 1.5 million children remained in areas affected by the conflict, now in its ninth day.
The U.N. human rights office said on Friday that 19 children had been killed in the conflict so far.
The news comes as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a fresh appeal for help from European nations and condemned a Russian attack on a nuclear power plant in Zaporizhzhia, the largest such facility in Europe.
Herasymchuk said: "Maternity hospitals, kindergartens, schools have been destroyed."
"About one and a half million children are in the territories suffering from shelling and under siege, among them there are orphans and children with disabilities who need immediate help," she said, according to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.
Tetiana Lomakina, coordinator of humanitarian corridors with the Ukrainian president's office, said that children were not receiving proper medical care in a number of affected areas.
"Babies are born in basements, and the first thing they hear in their lives is the sound of explosions," Lomakina said.
28 children have been killed, 64 wounded in eight days of Russia's war against Ukraine. 1,5 mln children currently remain in the areas heavily affected by the fighting and cannot leave, president's adviser for children's rights Daria Herasymchuk said https://t.co/PIG192s6Rt
— Olga Tokariuk (@olgatokariuk) March 4, 2022
On Thursday, UNICEF, the United Nations (U.N.) children's agency, warned that millions of children could be at risk amid the violence in Ukraine.
UNICEF's Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, Afshan Khan, warned: "The use of explosive weapons in cities could quickly turn this crisis into a catastrophe for Ukraine's children."
"There are no armed operations of this scale that do not result in children being harmed. The consequences will be tragic," Khan said.
UNICEF also said on Thursday that the number of child casualties "is likely far higher" then the U.N. has been able to confirm.
The U.N. Human Rights Council voted to condemn alleged human rights violations by Russia on Friday and supported establishing a commission of inquiry into the allegations.
"I welcome the establishment by the #UN Human Rights Council of the International Commission of Inquiry to investigate facts of Russian war crimes against Ukraine," Zelensky tweeted after the vote. "Evidence will be documented and used in international courts. Russian war criminals will be held accountable."
Zelensky accused Russia of "nuclear terrorism" earlier on Friday after the country's forces shelled the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, leading to condemnation from world leaders.
"We warn everyone that not a single nation ever shelled nuclear power stations. For the first time in the history of humankind, the terrorist state commits nuclear terrorism," Zelensky said.
The president also called on European nations to do more to help his country. The attack on the nuclear facility caused a fire that was later put out.
"Europe must wake up now," Zelensky said on Friday morning. "The largest nuclear station in Europe is on fire. Right now Russian tanks are shelling nuclear units. Those are the tanks that have thermal vision, so they know where they are shelling. They prepared for it."
