Says UN: 4.8 million Ukrainian children displaced since the beginning of the war

The UN Child Agency has said the figures show 4.8 million children have now left Ukraine since Russian forces invaded the country.

U Emergency Software Director NICEF, Manuel Fontaine, said the number of children who had fled the country was in vain.

“They have been forced to leave everything behind, their homes, schools and often even their family members. I have heard stories of the desperate steps that parents are taking to bring their children to security and children are sad that they are unable to return to school”, he said to the UN Security Council.

These figures come after Ukraine's ambassador to the UN, Sergiy Kyslytsya, claimed Russia had received more than 121 thousand children from Ukraine and was said to have drafted a bill to simplify and accelerate adoption procedures for orphans and even those who have parents and other relatives.

According to Kyslytsya, most of the children left the besieged southern port city of Marioupol and were sent to the eastern Donetsk and then to the Russian town of Taganrog.