Moscow spokesman for the UN has slammed the accusations as baseless, while Kiev has failed to confirm a single fact of the story.
Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, Vassily Nebenzia, said that the allegations of assorted atrocities against children purportedly committed by the Russian military in Ukraine are absurd and not supported by any facts. The diplomat made remarks at a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday.
Today, we heard about accusations made by a number of colleagues against the Russian military of committing acts of violence against children. He stated that the allegations were absurd, in particular, by a British colleague, but by others as well. The claims are not supported by facts, with even top Kiev officials admitting they don't have any actual evidence to support them, according to a recent interview with the adviser to the Ukrainian president's commissioner for children, Daria Gerasimchuk.
The Ukrainian Prosecutor General s Office has not a single confirmed fact of violence to date, she told the Polish-based Belsat TV channel in Belarus on Wednesday.
Ukrainian forces, on the contrary, have been routinely taking up positions at schools and kindergartens, deliberately turning such facilities into military targets, according to Nebenzia.
The occupation of schools, kindergartens and other children's educational institutions by the Ukrainian Armed Forces is not the exception, but the rule, the diplomat said. This inhumane method of warfare endangers the lives of children, deprives them of their right to education, and destroys Ukraine's educational infrastructure. Russia attacked the neighboring state in late February after Ukraine failed to implement the terms of the Minsk agreements, first signed in 2014, and Moscow s eventual recognition of the Donbass republics of Donetsk and Lugansk. The German and French Minsk Protocol was designed to give the breakaway regions special status within the Ukrainian state.
The Kremlin has demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join the US-led NATO military bloc. Kiev insists that the Russian offensive was unprovoked and has denied it plans to retake the two republics by force.