Russians kill 12 people, including 7-year-old child in attack on residential building in Hlukhiv, Sumy Oblast

At least ten people, including a child, were killed in a Russian attack on a temporary accommodation facility in Hlukhiv, the Sumy Oblast, late on November 18, 2024, according to the Sumy Oblast Military Administration, Sumy Oblast Prosecutor’s Office, State Emergency Service of Ukraine (SES).

There may still be people trapped under the rubble.

Later, the SES reported that 11 people had been killed. The death toll subsequently rose to 12. Sumy Oblast Prosecutor’s Office specified that an eight-year-old boy had been killed in the attack.

As reported by the local news outlet “Hlukhiv.City,” the victims of Russian attack are internally displaced persons from Ulanovo, the Sumy region: 43-year-old mother Tetyana and her sons, 20-year-old Nikita and 7-year-old Vasyl. The youngest son was just a few days away from his eighth birthday. Only the father of the family survived.

An Amnesty International issued an statement highlighting the ongoing plight of children in Ukraine, who continue to be killed and injured in Russian airstrikes, including in incidents which amount to war crimes.

Amnesty International verified seventeen strikes in 2024 that caused child casualties, while field research revealed that Russian forces have deliberately targeted civilians and civilian infrastructure. The statement reiterated calls for the perpetrators of unlawful attacks and war crimes to be brought to justice, and for redress to be given to all victims of war crimes committed in Russia’s aggression.

“Children, as some of the most vulnerable groups in any society, enjoy special protection under international humanitarian law. Yet we continue to see them killed and injured in areas far from the frontlines, including in areas with zero military targets,” said Patrick Thompson, Amnesty International’s Ukraine researcher.

According to Thompson, the strikes Amnesty International documented in 2024, including the attack against Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital in Kyiv, were war crimes reminiscent of the early days of the full-scale invasion, when Russian forces bombed the maternity hospital and drama theatre in Mariupol.

“Civilians and civilian objects, including hospitals which enjoy special protection, continue to be the target of unlawful attacks, and more and more children are killed and injured in them,” Thompson highlighted.

The Amnesty International reported that there is a consensus among organisations documenting civilian harm in Ukraine that 2024 has seen a significant increase in civilian casualties, including children. The data, including that published by United Nations Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR), suggests that the summer of 2024 was a particularly deadly time for children in Ukraine. Amnesty International’s Digital Verification Corps verified over 120 videos and images of attacks against children in 2024, and further research was carried out on the ground by researchers.

The growing number of civilians killed and injured, both in government-controlled Ukraine and Russian-occupied and Russian territories, is the direct result of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which is a crime under international law.

According to OHCHR data, approximately 89% of civilian casualties have occurred in territories controlled by Ukraine. Amnesty International is unable to independently verify the number of children reported as killed by Russian sources, nor affirm the reliability of the information or the alleged attribution of these attacks to Ukrainian forces.

The Amnesty International emphasised that direct attacks on civilians or civilian objects are war crimes. Indiscriminate attacks, including those on populated areas with explosive weapons, are a violation of international humanitarian law. Indiscriminate strikes that kill or injure civilians constitute war crimes.

Amnesty International has documented numerous instances since February 2022 of Russian forces conducting indiscriminate attacks in Ukraine, resulting in thousands of civilian casualties, and evidence of other war crimes, including torture, sexual violence, and unlawful killings.