Rally commemorates children lost in ongoing Russia-Ukraine war
A local Ukrainian organization held a demonstration Saturday in Downtown Edmonton to commemorate the children who have died in the Russia-Ukraine war.
Inna Ivchenko, president of the Ukrainian National Youth Federation, said the afternoon event at Churchill Square was meant to draw attention to the tragedy of the war and focus on the devastating human effects on her country. Demonstrators were asked to bring toys, children's shoes and candles.
“Our demonstration is to show to people that Ukraine is still in a brutal war that is killing our future, which is our children. We just wanted to show people that it's not only about the army (and the fighting), it's about civilians,” Ivchenko said.
On Saturday, The Associated Press reported that Ukrainian authorities said two people, including a 16-year-old boy, were killed in Russian artillery attacks. Last weekend, AP reported a Russian drone strike destroyed an apartment block in the southern port city of Odesa and killed at least 11 people. Officials said among the bodies recovered were that of a young woman with an eightmonth-old boy clutched in her arms.
In the same airstrike, a 10-yearold boy was killed.
On Feb. 22, the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) said that since Feb. 24, 2022, there have been at least 10,582 civilian fatalities and 19,875 were injured. The number includes 587 children killed and 1,298 injured.
The HRMMU stressed that the actual number of those killed and injured is likely to be significantly higher.