More than 400 Children Killed in Ukraine to Date

Wes O'Donnell
4 min readNov 23, 2022

Typing this headline made me nauseous

Photo by Dasha Urvachova on Unsplash

On Saturday, Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office reported at least 437 Ukrainian children have been killed and more than 800 injured as a result of Russian aggression.

However, officials warned that the tally is “not final” and likely to be higher because they were still verifying information from zones of active fighting, liberated areas, and territory still occupied by Russian forces.

The eastern Donetsk region was the most affected, with the vast majority, 423 children, killed or injured

Overall, the United Nations has said at least 16,295 civilians have been killed since Russia’s February 24th invasion.

I’ve heard commentators describe such losses in transactional language, as in “Well, it’s a war, what did you expect? Civilian deaths are a tragic part of every war.”

To which, I would respond, “What in the actual fuck is wrong with you?”

It’s simple math.

Children are dying as a direct result of a decision made by one man.

Had Russia not unlawfully invaded its neighbor, these children would still be alive.

Full stop.

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Wes O'Donnell

US Army & US Air Force Veteran | Global Security Writer | Intel Forecaster | Law Student | TEDx Speaker | Pro Democracy | Pro Human | Hates Authoritarians