The United Nations voiced alarm on Friday over reports of an overnight attack on a vocational school and dormitory in the town of Starobilsk in Ukraine's Luhansk region which killed and injured multiple civilians, including children.
The UN does not have access to the area - which is under temporary Russian occupation - and cannot verify the details of the reported strike.
UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Ted Chaiban said the dormitory had reportedly housed at least 86 adolescents aged between 14 and 18.
"The attack reportedly left six dead and dozens of others injured, including children," he said during an emergency Security Council meeting in New York.
Mr. Chaiban added that rescue operations were still underway and that "it is too early to know the full extent of the casualties."
Children paying the price for war
He stressed that children are disproportionately impacted: "This is yet another example of children paying the price for a war that is not of their own making."
According to verified UN data, more than 3,400 children have been killed or injured in Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.
End attacks against civilians
UN Secretary-General António Guterres ' Spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, said the Organization "strongly condemn[s] any attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure, wherever they occur."
"As the Secretary-General has repeatedly underscored, such attacks are prohibited under international humanitarian law and must end immediately," Mr. Dujarric said.
Pattern defies international law
Edem Wosornu, Director of the Operations at the UN relief coordination office OCHA , underscored the need to protect civilians.
"The situation is still unfolding and there is much we do not yet know," she told ambassadors in the Security Council. "But what we do know is that the human cost of this war reveals a pattern that defies international humanitarian law. Civilians must be protected."
Vanessa Frazier, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict , said several people could still be trapped beneath the rubble adding she had been following the reports from Luhansk "with concern".
