Seven children were hurt as the Ukrainian military shelled the city of Slavyansk, a stronghold of the protesters, in the country’s South East on Friday night, Pavel Astakhov, Russia’s ombudsman for children’s rights, said.
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“According to the public health department of the Donetsk
regional administration, seven children were injured by bullets
and shrapnel during the bombardment by the Ukrainian army,”
Astakhov wrote on Twitter.
Self-defense forces in Slavyansk say the Ukrainian military
shelled the town’s residential area during the night, with one of
the shells hitting a children’s hospital.
A children’s clinic was also damaged by artillery fire, the
ITAR-TASS news agency reports.
On Wednesday, a school in the Artema residential district of Slavyansk was bombarded and one of the shells blasted through the roof of the assembly hall.
Fatalities were only avoided because teachers and pupils managed
to find shelter in the basement of the school building.
In his interview with the Rossiya 24 channel, Astakhov said that
an online action called ‘Save Donbass Children’ (#savedonbasschildren)
has been initiated via social networks.
“I want to appeal to the leaders of all states around the
globe to urge [Ukraine’s president-elect], Petro Poroshenko, to
save the children of Donbass,” the ombudsman stressed.
#savedonbasschildren #savedonbasspeoplepic.twitter.com/5LuoWaI7KC
— Andriy Bondarenko (@bondarenko_as) May 30, 2014
#Savedonbasschildrenpic.twitter.com/pU3xcm5IgH
— Saltison (@Saltison64) May 27, 2014
Last week, Astakhov wrote to United Nations Secretary General Ban
Ki-moon and the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation
in Europe) to attract attention to violations of humanitarian law
and the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the Ukrainian
regime.
He also urged international organizations to put pressure on Kiev
in order to provide a humanitarian corridor for the people to be
evacuated from the warzone in the South East of the country.
On Friday, ombudsman’s aide, Renat Abayev, told RIA Novosti that
Astakhov “hasn’t yet received a reply from either Ban Ki-moon
or the OSCE.”
The evacuation of kids from Slavyansk is already underway, with
200 youngsters sent to Artek children’s camp in Crimea, Russian
media report.
According to RIA Novosti, there are also plans to transfer
another 300 children to Svyatogorsk and other towns in the
Donetsk region (where the situation is calmer), as well as health
resorts in the Odessa Region.
The Slavyansk administration says that it has received over 1,000
requests from parents, who want their children evacuated from the
town, which has been besieged by Ukrainian forces for almost two
months.
There are 5,000 pre-school children and 12,000 kids between 6 and
17 years old in Slavyansk, the administration added.