MOSCOW, June 28. /TASS/. Russian troops have repeatedly risked their lives to save children from shelling by the Ukrainian military and Moscow resolutely rejects any accusations by UN rapporteurs that the Russian Armed Forces violated children's rights, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.
The Office of the UN Special Representative of the Secretary General for Children and Armed Conflict designated Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups as "parties that commit grave violations affecting children in situations of armed conflict" in a report from the year 2002 that was released on June 27.
"We resolutely reject such wording. Our troops have on a number of occasions risked their own lives while taking measures to save children, to get them away from incoming shelling, which was carried out by the Ukrainian military targeting civilian infrastructure," Peskov said.
The 2022 report on children and armed conflicts didn’t list Ukrainian armed forces under the same designation as Russia, although it did say they were involved in killing and maiming children, depriving them of liberty, using them as human shields and attacking schools and hospitals.
With respect to violations against children by Ukrainian forces, Virginia Gamba, a UN special representative, said in the report, "I am particularly disturbed by the large number of children killed and maimed and by the attacks on schools and hospitals. I urge Ukrainian armed forces to abide by their obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law."