Ukraine’s president Volodímir Zelensky assured on Sunday that 485 Ukrainian children had been killed by the Russian occupiers since the start of the war.

“Russian terror has killed hundreds of our children, and only since February 24, during the full-scale war, have we known for certain that 485 children have died,” Zelensky said in his usual last-minute speech.

But the Ukrainian leader added: “This is a number that we can officially confirm, knowing each child’s data.” “Unfortunately, the actual number is higher. Every time we liberate our country from the Russian occupiers, we learn the terrible truth about the occupation.”

However, Zelensky has wondered: “how many people, how many children are buried in the occupied territory, in the graves of this war, this aggression.” “And how many more remain under the ruins of Ukrainian cities and towns burned down by Russia.”

The Ukrainian leader regrets that “so far” they do not have “complete information about the hundreds of thousands of children deported to Russia”.

Today, he explained, “371 children have been deported to Ukraine thanks to various efforts.”

“At the same time, he added, we are sure that there are at least 19,505 deported Ukrainian children, and this is only part of all our little Ukrainians who are still in the hands of the enemy. We have to return them all.”

Ukraine has been celebrating this Sunday “the day of remembrance of children who died as a result of Russian aggression” since 2014, Zelensky said.

“Children who would still live as a gang of thugs in the Kremlin, in Moscow, had not seen themselves as chiefs who supposedly had the right to decide the fate of nations,” he said.