The United Nations Secretary-General said he was appalled on Sunday by the reported attack on May 7 that hit a school in Bilohorivka, Ukraine, where many people were seeking shelter from the ongoing fighting.
“This attack is yet another reminder that in this war, as in so many other conflicts, it is civilians who pay the highest price,” UN chief spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. in a statement on behalf of António Guterres.
Earlier, the United Nations Children’s Fund strongly condemned the new attack on the school in Luhansk, Ukraine.
The UNICEF Director asserted that “schools can never be a target of war”.
Catherine Russell said it was not yet possible to know how many children had been killed in the bombing, but she feared the attack could add to the hundreds of minors who had lost their lives since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
In a separate statement, the Secretary-General on Sunday welcomed the arrival of a new group of more than 170 civilians who were evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant and other areas of Mariupol as part of a safe passage operation successfully coordinated by the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
More than 60 people were feared dead Sunday after a Russian bomb flattened a school being used as a shelter, Ukrainian officials said, while Moscow’s forces pressed their attack on defenders inside Mariupol’s steel plant in an apparent race to capture the city, AP Reported
Since Russia’s invasion began on 24 February, the UN has recorded at least 2,345 civilian deaths and 2,919 injured in Ukraine, the High Commissioner for Human Rights said in an update last month. Thousands of combatants are also believed to have been killed or injured on both sides.
More than 12 million people are said to have fled their homes since the conflict began, with 5.7 million leaving for neighbouring countries and another 6.5 million people thought to be displaced inside the war-torn country itself.