Be advised: The following contains visual coverage of scenes of injury or death.
In the three weeks since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine, innocent children and their mothers have not been spared from the ravages of war — and many have been slain as they shelter or flee for their lives.
On Wednesday, a theater in Mariupol — where hundreds of people had been taking shelter in the besieged coastal city — was bombed by a Russian airstrike, according to local authorities. Satellite pictures show that the theater was marked with large white letters that read “CHILDREN” in Russian.
“A children’s hospital. A maternity hospital. How did they threaten the Russian Federation?” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked in a video address. “What kind of country is this, the Russian Federation, which is afraid of hospitals, afraid of maternity hospitals, and destroys them?”
This satellite image shows a theater in Mariupol, Ukraine, marked with large white letters that read "CHILDREN" in Russian. (Digitally enhanced by Yahoo News; photo: Maxar Technologies via AP)
Zelensky said on Wednesday that since the launch of Russia’s onslaught last month, at least 103 children have been killed. But the death toll is expected to be higher, especially once the devastation in blockaded cities like Mariupol is assessed. Most of the known deaths took place in the cities of Kyiv, Kherson, Kharkiv and Donetsk, the Ukrainian prosecutor general’s office said.
Of the more than 3 million Ukrainians who have fled the country seeking safe refuge, some 1.5 million are children, according to the United Nations, which calculated that roughly every second, a child in Ukraine is becoming a war refugee. Now, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said, it’s feared those children on the run from their war-torn homes are prey for human traffickers.
Children under fire
The children of medical workers warm themselves in a blanket as they wait for their relatives in a hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine, March 4. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)
A child is carried on a stroller across an improvised path while fleeing Irpin, on the outskirts of Kyiv, March 9. (Felipe Dana/AP)
Medics perform CPR on a girl injured during the shelling of a residential area, in the city hospital of Mariupol on Feb. 27. The girl did not survive. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)
The lifeless body of a girl killed during shelling at a residential area lies on a medical cart at the city hospital of Mariupol, Feb. 27. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)
Servicemen carry a baby during the evacuation from Irpin on March 9. (Mykhaylo Palinchak/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
A woman reacts as paramedics perform CPR on a girl who was injured during shelling, at the city hospital of Mariupol on Feb. 27. The girl did not survive. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)
A child sleeps in an armchair as others stand around in a shelter during Russian shelling, in Mariupol, Feb. 24. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)
Citizens of Irpin flee the bombardments of the Russian army, March 6. (Laurent Van der Stockt for Le Monde via Getty Images)
Marina Yatsko, left, and her boyfriend Fedor mourn over her 18-month-old son Kirill's lifeless body, killed in shelling, as he lies on a stretcher in a hospital in Mariupol on March 4. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)
Children in a bomb shelter in Mariupol, March 6. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)
A toy and a notebook lie by a house that was hit with a missile on Feb. 26, in Kyiv. (Anastasia Vlasova/Getty Images)
A child looks on as residents evacuate the city of Irpin during heavy shelling and bombing on March 5. (Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images)
A police officer shows the covered bodies of children killed by shelling at a hospital in Mariupol on Tuesday. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)
Medical workers unsuccessfully try to save the life of Marina Yatsko's 18-month-old son, Kirill, who was fatally wounded by shelling, at a hospital in Mariupol, March 4. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)
Women and children sit on the floor of a corridor in a hospital in Mariupol on March 11. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)
Serhii, father of teenager Iliya, cries over his son's lifeless body lying on a stretcher at a maternity hospital converted into a medical ward, in Mariupol on March 2. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)
A medical worker holds a newborn girl, Alana, who was born by cesarian section in a hospital in Mariupol on March 11. (Evgeniy Maloletka/AP)
A child's soft toy hangs from window bars in a destroyed apartment block after it was shelled in the Obolon district of Kyiv on Monday. (Aris Messinis/AFP via Getty Images)
_____
What happened this week in Ukraine? Check out this explainer from Yahoo Immersive to find out.
Toronto police have identified a man who plunged to his death from an eighth-floor balcony downtown late Wednesday in the city's latest homicide.Ryan Williams, 38, of Toronto, fell from a balcony just before midnight at a highrise in the area of Church and Shuter streets, police said in a news release on Thursday.Paramedics say they transported a man to a trauma centre. He was pronounced dead in hospital, according to police.Williams is the city's 24th homicide victim of the year.Police have sai
A Secret Service agent assigned to Vice President Kamala Harris’ detail was removed from their assignment after displaying behavior that colleagues found “distressing,” the agency said.
Sabrina Carpenter went braless wearing the Mirror Palais Anemone Dress in butter featuring illusion tulle adorned with lace appliqués along the neckline and hem
Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty ImagesWhen Manhattan District Attorney prosecutors called their second witness in Donald Trump’s criminal case on Friday, they wanted the jury to note who is paying for the lawyers for this prosecution witness: Trump.Rhona Graff, who served as Donald Trump’s executive assistant and so-called gatekeeper for 34 years, was called by prosecutors on Friday to testify in her former boss’ criminal hush-money trial. And almost immediately, Assistant District Attorney S
Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis may have inspired their grandfather's latest photo choice to mark the first anniversary of his coronation
When the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately rules on Donald Trump's claim of presidential immunity from prosecution, a third of those deciding the matter will be justices he appointed to their lifetime posts. Those three - Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch - posed questions from various angles as the nation's top judicial body heard arguments on Thursday in a case that provides a vital test of the power of the presidency. A key question, Gorsuch said, is "how to segregate private from official conduct that may or may not enjoy some immunity."
ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP via Getty ImagesAn economics professor at Emory University whose needlessly violent arrest was captured by a news crew on Thursday at the school’s pro-Palestine protest, is now facing charges for battery against a police officer.In a disturbing video captured by CNN, Professor Caroline Fohlin approached several police officers as they wrestled one protester to the ground, forcefully shoving their head into the concrete sidewalk. “Oh my God, what are you doing?” Fohlin asked,
NEW YORK (AP) — New York’s highest court on Thursday threw out Harvey Weinstein ’s 2020 rape conviction with a ruling that shocked and disappointed women who celebrated historic gains during the #MeToo era and left those who testified in the case bracing for a retrial against the ex-movie mogul. The court found the trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against Weinstein based on allegations that weren’t part of the case. Weinstein, 72, will remain in prison because he was convicted in Los Angel
"And do you say to them, 'You coward?'" radio host Howard Stern asks The post Biden Says More GOP Senators Have Agreed With Him Privately but Said They ‘Just Can’t Do It’ Publicly Because Trump ‘Will Get Me’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.
