The humanitarian organisation, Save the Children, says attacks on hospitals and schools in Ukraine are putting around six million children in acute danger.

“Schools should be a place of safety for children, not a place of fear, injury or death,” said Pete Walsh, the country director for Save the Children in Ukraine.

Roughly one in five children has had to flee their home country to escape the war, while those children who remain in the war zone lack food, clean water and medical assistance as they are constantly forced to fear for their lives.

At the same time, 489 schools and 43 hospitals had been damaged or destroyed so far, the organisation said.

“The rules of war are very clear,” said Mr Walsh, who maintained that children, schools and hospitals are not targets. “We have to protect the children of Ukraine at all costs. “How many more people have to die before this war ends?”

According to the UN, at least 59 children have already been killed, with media reports suggesting the real number may be in the triple digits.

(dpa/NAN)