UN Says Over 4 Million Ukrainian Children Displaced

• Some 4.8 million of Ukraine’s 7.5 million children have been displaced since the start of the war, according to the UN

• The US and Britain say they are looking into reports that chemical weapons have been used by Russian forces attacking Mariupol

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EKO HOT BLOG reports that the UN’s children’s agency UNICEF, on Monday, announced that nearly two-thirds of all Ukrainian children have fled their homes in the six weeks since Russia’s invasion.

The body has also verified the deaths of 142 youngsters, although they have warned the actual number is almost certainly much higher.

Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF’s emergency programs director who just returned from Ukraine, said having 4.8 million of Ukraine’s 7.5 million children displaced in such a short time is something he had not seen happen so quickly in 31 years of humanitarian work.

“Of the 3.2 million children estimated to have remained in their homes, nearly half may be at risk of not having enough food,” Fontaine told the security council.

He warned the situation was probably worse in cities like Mariupol and Kherson, where there was no water and sanitation services and the supply of food and medicine had been disrupted.

Meanwhile Ukraine’s UN ambassador, Sergiy Kyslytsya, claimed Russia has taken more than 121,000 children out of Ukraine and reportedly drafted a bill to simplify and accelerate adoption procedures.

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Fontaine said there was so far “no evidence” of such accusations, but that UNICEF would investigate the matter.

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