MOSCOW, July 27. /TASS/. Mourning ceremonies for the Day of Commemorating Children Victims of the war in Donbass will be held on Thursday in the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) and other regions of Russia.

This date in memory of almost 300 children who had died in the result of shelling by the Ukrainian armed forces, was established by decree of the head of the DPR on July 11, 2022.

The coup d'etat in Ukraine in February 2014 triggered mass protests in the east of the country, where the Russian-speaking population predominates, who opposed the new course of Kiev. In response, in mid-April of 2014, the Ukrainian authorities launched a military operation in Donbass involving aviation, with a massive shelling of residential areas. Civilians, including children came under the fire of the Ukrainian armed forces.

"In total, as a result of Ukraine's military aggression on the territory of Donbass since 2014, 289 children have been killed and 681 injured," Inna Shvenk, Commissioner for Children's Rights in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), told TASS. She specified that in DPR 231 children were killed, and 499 were injured and in LPR 58 children were killed and 182 children were injured. The Children's Ombudsman stressed that some of the injured children became disabled.