UN report puts Russia on list of offenders over child casualties in Ukraine

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres has hit out at Russia for killing 136 children during fighting in Ukraine in 2022 and added its armed forces to a global list of offenders in a report to the UN Security Council.

A United Nations гeport says Russian armed forces have been added to its list of global offenders after more than 130 children were killed and more than 400 maimed during fighting in Ukraine in 2022. AP - Bernat Armangue

The United Nations also verified that Russian armed forces and affiliated groups maimed 518 children and carried out 480 attacks on schools and hospitals.

Russian armed forces also used 91 children as human shields, according to the report which is due to be published next week.

Russia has denied targeting civilians since it invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022.

The report, which has been seen by the Reuters news agency, also verified that Ukrainian armed forces killed 80 children, maimed 175 children and carried out 212 attacks on schools and hospitals. The Ukrainian armed forces are not on the global offenders list.

Guterres said in the report that he was particularly shocked by the high number of children killed and maimed as well as the number of attacks on schools and hospitals carried out by Russian armed forces.

Concern

He also said he was particularly disturbed by the high number of such offences against children by Ukrainian armed forces. Russia's mission to the UN in New York has yet to comment on the report.

The annual report from Guterres to the 15-member Security Council on children and armed conflict covers the killing, maiming, sexual abuse, abduction or recruitment of children, denial of aid access and targeting of schools and hospitals.

The report was compiled by Virginia Gamba, Guterres' special representative for children and armed conflict.

Gamba last month visited Ukraine and Russia, where she met Russia's envoy for children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova – who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) on war crimes charges.

Warrant

The ICC last month issued an arrest warrant against the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Lvova-Belova, accusing them of illegally deporting children from Ukraine and the unlawful transfer of people to Russia from Ukraine since February 2022.

Moscow said the warrants were legally void as Russia was not a signatory to the treaty that established the ICC.

The UN report on children and armed conflict verified the abduction of 91 children by Russian armed forces; all of them were subsequently released. The report also verified the transfer of 46 children to Russia from Ukraine.

Moscow has not concealed a programme under which it has brought thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia. It presents the movement as a humanitarian campaign to protect orphans and children abandoned in the war zone.

Exclusion

The report on children and armed conflict also includes the list intended to shame parties in conflicts in the hope of pushing them to implement measures to protect children.

It has long been controversial. Israel has never been on the list, while a Saudi-led military coalition was removed from the list in 2020 several years after it was first named for killing and injuring children in Yemen.

In an effort to curb the furore, the list released in 2017 by Guterres was split into two categories. One lists parties that have put in place measures to protect children and the other includes parties that have not.

Russia was placed on the list of parties that have put in place measures aimed at improving the protection of children.

The report found that Israeli forces killed 42 children and injured 933 children in 2022. Israel is not the offenders list.

"I note a meaningful decrease in the number of children killed by Israeli forces, including by air strikes," Guterres wrote.

"Nevertheless, I remain deeply concerned by the number of children killed and maimed by Israeli forces."

The report overall verified that 24,300 violations had been committed against children in 2022.

The most were verified in Democratic Republic of Congo, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, Somalia, Syria, Ukraine, Afghanistan and Yemen.

"While non-state armed groups were responsible for 50 percent of the grave violations, government forces were the main perpetrator of the killing and maiming of children, attacks on schools and hospitals, and the denial of humanitarian access," Guterres said in the report.