MOSCOW, October 11 (RIA Novosti), Bijendra Singh - Protecting Ukrainian citizens and especially children, 20 of whom died in bombings in September alone, is a direct responsibility of the Ukrainian authorities, Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi told RIA Novosti in a Saturday interview.
"It is the responsibility of the Ukrainian government to save their citizens, particularly children. Safety of the children will be their utmost priority. I will appeal to the Ukrainian government so as to ensure that such incidents against children will not occur in future," Satyarthi said.
He also argued children must not carry the consequences of armed conflicts, regardless where and for which reasons they occur.
"Whatever happening in Syria, Ukraine and Palestine is due to political reasons, but children are bearing the brunt of these crises. It's very painful that we have not made our place safer for children. So far we have not been able to create a world where children will be safe. They are innocent and have nothing to do with violence but often they are on target," the Indian humanitarian argued, adding that the international community should not only condemn such action, but also act against it.
An armed conflict in Ukraine's South-East began in April when Kiev launched a military operation against independence supporters in the region. Almost 3,700 people have been killed and over 8,800 have been wounded since the start of the operation, according to a UN report published this week.
