UNITED NATIONS, July 5. /TASS/. Ukrainian service members from the nationalist battalions Tornado and Aidar (an organization recognized as extremist and banned in Russia) have tortured and abused children in Donbass, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said on Wednesday at the UN Security Council meeting on children in armed conflicts.

"The cruelty of the Kiev regime’s criminals boggles the imagination," he said. "In one of the schools in Lisichansk of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), fighters from the notorious volunteer unit Tornado set up a real torture chamber. Children were tortured and raped, and all this was filmed on video. In the city with a peaceful name Schastye (Happiness in English - TASS) in the LPR, the head teacher of one of the lyceums took part in organizing the delivery of orphaned girls to the Aidar battalion for abuse and gratification of sexual needs."

"Since February 2022, the DPR (Donetsk People’s Republic - TASS) and the LPR have been shelled by the Ukrainian military more than 19,000 times," Nebenzya added. "Over 5,000 civilians, including 200 children, have been killed, while several thousand people, including 300 children, have been wounded. About 600 educational and over 140 medical facilities have been either destroyed or damaged in Donbass. Facts have been documented that children died or sustained severe injuries in the Zaporozhye, Kherson, as well as Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk Regions as a result of shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces.".