Ukraine slams UNICEF over statement on children killed in Russian attacks
Acting Foreign Minister of Ukraine Andrii Sybiha (photo: Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
Ukraine's Acting Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha criticized a UNICEF statement about children killed and injured in attacks in Russia and Ukraine. He says the organization missed a key point—that all these deaths are a direct consequence of Russian aggression.
Sybiha responded to a UNICEF statement issued on August 4. According to him, by reporting on children's deaths without mentioning their cause—Russian aggression—the organization creates a false impression of equivalence between the aggressor and the victim.
"It is deeply regrettable that in its August 4 statement, UNICEF missed a key point: all these children's deaths are a direct consequence of Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine," the minister stressed.
Errors of fact in statement
The foreign minister also pointed to a lack of basic fact-checking.
He noted that the statement did not mention that the casualties in Krasnodar, Russia, resulted from a drone falling after it was reportedly intercepted by Russian air defenses.
In addition, UNICEF failed to verify information about casualties in Ukraine. Sybiha said that seven children, not three, were killed in the Dnipropetrovsk region as part of the same family.
"And yesterday, Russia killed another innocent Ukrainian child—a three-year-old boy in the Kyiv region," he added.
The minister stressed that these are Russian war crimes. He called on UNICEF to condemn these crimes and demand that Russia stop killing innocent Ukrainian children.
As previously reported, on the night of July 30, a Russian ballistic missile hit a private home in the village of Radushne near Kryvyi Rih in Ukraine, where a large family lived.
The parents and children were killed—these were the victims Sybiha was referring to when discussing the inaccurate data.
Reuters reports that the strike may have been carried out using a North Korean missile.
