Putin's invasion has killed nearly 100 children, Ukraine claims
Ukraine has said nearly 100 children have been killed since Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade.
In a virtual address to Canadian lawmakers on Tuesday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: "We have 97 children that died during this war.
"They are destroying everything: memorial complexes, schools, hospitals, housing complex. We are not asking for much. We are asking for justice, for real support," the Zelenskyy said, adding: "How many cruise missiles have to fall on our cities?"
In a message posted on the Telegram channel, Ukraine's Office of the Prosecutor General said: "As a result of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation, as of the morning of March 15, 2022, some 97 children were killed and more than 100 wounded. Most of the victims were in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk, Chernihiv, Sumy, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Zhytomyr regions.
Hundreds of schools have also been hit, the Ukraine Interfax news agency said, with more than 400 being damaged and 59 being completely destroyed.
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Figures given by Interfax said the most damage was in Donetsk region, where 119 schools were struck.
Russia has maintained only military targets are being hit as Putin's forces - but footage from the scenes of the attacks tell of a different reality.
A nursery in Okhtyrka, 70 miles from Kharkiv, was destroyed when it was bombed on 25 February, just over 24 hours into the invasion.
Six people died after the Sonechko Nursery and Kindergarten was targeted, including seven-year-old Alisa Hlans and her grandfather, who is said to have been killed in front of her as he tried to rescue the youngster.
Amnesty International claimed the attack was from cluster bombs which were released in the residential area.
Once released, the weapons kill indiscriminately.
In Kyiv a fourth-grade student from Kyiv called Polina, who is thought to be either nine or 10, and her parents, were killed when the car they were in was shot at by Russian troops in Kyiv.
Last week, Russia sparked further international condemnation when a children's and maternity hospital in Mariupol was bombed on Wednesday.
Pictures and video from the scene showed heavily pregnant women being pulled from the rubble, covered in injuries.
A six-year-old girl and two adults were reported dead in the immediate aftermath of the attack, which Russia claimed was "fake news", claiming it was a viable military target.
Another woman caught up in the bombing, who was pictured being carried away on a stretcher, was subsequently reported dead on Monday alongside her newborn baby.
The unnamed woman was rushed to another hospital following the Russian attack last week, the AP news agency reported.
Reports said she cried out: "Kill me now!", as she realised she was losing her baby.
The southern city of Mariupol, which has been subjected to a particularly fierce bombing campaign that has claimed the lives of hundreds, has now been under siege from Russian forces for almost two weeks, with authorities there resorting to digging mass graves as the death toll rises.
The situation there has become so desperate that vital food, water and medicine supplies have been barred from reaching those trapped inside.
Humanitarian corridors have been attempted in an effort to free people within or get life-saving supplies in, but each time Russia has agreed, their troops have been accused of breaking the agreement.
A six-year-old girl called Tanya died of dehydration in Mariupol it was reported, with mayor Vadim Boychenko saying she died "alone, exhausted, frightened, terribly thirsty".
He added: "This is just one of the many stories of Mariupol, which has been surviving the blockade for eight days."
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Zelenskyy said her death was “probably the first such case since the Second World War”, and added: “Listen to me carefully: In 2022, a child died from dehydration.”
And while Russia continues its denial that residential areas are being targeted, a 16-storey building was completely burned and at least two people were killed when series of Russian strikes hit a residential neighbourhood on Tuesday morning.
The Ukrainian Emergency Service said in a statement on Telegram that at least two died and 46 people were rescued from the severely damaged building in the Sviatoshynskyi district of Kyiv.
Ukrainian parliament member Oleksii Honcharenko told the Anadolu Agency Video News that the area that was hit by probably a missile is “absolutely a residential area”.
At least 636 civilians have been killed and 1,125 injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the war, according to the UN. It has warned, however, that the true toll is likely much higher as access to areas of increased hostilities remains restricted.
Some 2.8 million people have also fled to neighbouring countries, said the UN refugee agency.
