Russia has killed or wounded more than 3,100 Ukrainian children since launching its full-scale invasion, and one in five children in the country has lost a close relative or friend to the war. The United Nations warns that the true toll is likely far higher.
Pro-Kremlin outlets have once again tried to pin the consequences of Russia’s own war on Ukraine. This time, propagandists allege that since 2014 “the actions of the Kyiv regime” have harmed 24,000 children and killed more than 300 minors. Citing what they describe as “official statistics,” these media claim that “over the course of the commission’s work, more than 130,000 people were recognized as victims, including 24,340 children.”
The Kremlin’s disinformation network routinely leans on manipulation and fabricated numbers to obscure the Russian military’s own war crimes. The “statistics” circulated by Russian outlets bear no resemblance to data verified by independent international monitors and are entirely detached from documented realities on the ground.
According to the UN’s independent commission operating in Ukraine, more than 3,100 children have been killed or injured by Russian forces since the outset of the full-scale invasion. An estimated 97% of all civilian casualties have occurred in territory under Kyiv’s control — a reflection, investigators say, of the scale and direction of Russian attacks. The UN cautions that the true toll is almost certainly higher, noting that its figures account only for cases that international monitors have been able to independently verify.
UN data show a steadily worsening civilian toll, with children and parents bearing an ever-growing share of the impact. From January through October of last year, Russian missile and drone strikes killed 434 civilians and wounded 2,045 more. Over the same period in 2025, the death toll climbed 26% to 548, while the number of injured surged 75%, reaching 3,592 — a stark indicator of how Russia’s campaign has intensified.
In October 2025 alone, the UN confirmed at least 148 Ukrainians killed and 929 injured. Among them were seven children killed and 57 wounded — most of them victims of indiscriminate Russian airstrikes on residential neighborhoods across Ukrainian cities.
Independent experts point to an even grimmer reality: over the first three years of the full-scale invasion (with figures current through February 2025; updated data expected in February 2026), one in five children in Ukraine has lost a close relative or friend to Russian aggression. “This level of violence causes immense fear and suffering and disrupts every aspect of a child’s life,” the UN warns.
According to verified UN data, 108 educational institutions came under attack in the third quarter of 2025 alone, bringing the total for the year to 348. UN observers expressed alarm over Russia’s direct strikes on schools, noting that on October 22, 2025, a Russian long-range missile hit a kindergarten in Kharkiv where 48 children were present at the time.
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, 1,611 Ukrainian educational institutions have been directly impacted by attacks, according to international monitors. These strikes have severely disrupted children’s access to safe, inclusive, and quality learning environments.
This academic year, 4.6 million Ukrainian children face obstacles to education, now entering their fourth year amid full-scale war. Persistent attacks continue to damage or destroy schools and endanger students’ lives. Air raid alerts frequently interrupt lessons, and many schools near the front lines remain closed due to fighting or insufficient shelter, forcing nearly one million children to rely on online learning.
In June 2023, the United Nations added Russia to its list of violators of children’s rights. Earlier, on March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s so-called “children’s ombudsman,” Maria Lvova-Belova. According to the ICC, there is compelling evidence that both are responsible for the abduction and illegal deportation of Ukrainian children from territories under temporary Russian occupation.
These documented realities expose the hollowness of Russia’s propaganda, which crumbles under scrutiny from verified data collected by international observers and democratic institutions.
Further analysis of this topic is available in StopFake’s reports: Fake: Russia ‘Protects’ Ukrainian Children, Fake: Russia’s ‘Evacuation’ of Ukrainian Children is ‘Not a War Crime’, and Fake: Ukraine Is ‘Lying’ About Russia Abducting 20,000 Children.
