103 Children Have Died in Russian Attacks Though Death Toll Is Likely Much Higher: Ukraine Official

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More than 100 children have been killed since Russia launched its attack against Ukraine on Feb. 24, a Ukrainian official reportedly said Wednesday.

In an update posted to Telegram, Prosecutor General Irina Venediktova said at least 103 children have died and 100 have been wounded in the ongoing war, according to The Washington Post. Echoing other assessments, her office warned that the death toll was likely much higher and that it was difficult to determine precise numbers amid the fighting.

Most children were killed in the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Kherson, the prosecutor’s office said, adding that Russian bombs and shelling have damaged more than 400 educational institutions, including schools, and that 59 of those were destroyed.

Attacks also hit medical and rehabilitation facilities, including for children with disabilities, according to the Post‘s report on the prosecutor general’s update, which requested evidence and information to document possible Russian war crimes.

Venediktova called for a United Nations special mission to determine if children’s rights were violated during the war, her office said.

Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilian sites.

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The United Nations Commission on Human Rights (OHCHR) also released new numbers on civilian casualties in Ukraine, reporting that 691 people have been killed and 1,143 were injured.

The OHCHR said it believed “actual figures are considerably higher,” citing delays in the information gathering in locations “where intense hostilities have been going on.”

Those figures include 48 children killed and 62 children injured.

“Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes,” the agency said.

So far, more than 3 million people have fled Ukraine to escape the violence, according to the U.N., which said half are children.

“Every day, over the past 20 days, in Ukraine more than 70,000 children have become refugees,” the United Nations Children’s Fund spokesperson James Elder said on Tuesday. “That’s every minute, 55 children fleeing the country.”

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Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues three weeks after their forces launched a large-scale invasion on Feb. 24 — the first major land conflict in Europe in decades.

Details of the fighting change by the day as casualties mount and people continue to flee the country.

“You don’t know where to go, where to run, who you have to call. This is just panic,” Liliya Marynchak, a 45-year-old teacher in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, told PEOPLE of the moment her city was bombed — one of numerous accounts of bombardment by the Russians.

The invasion, ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin, has drawn condemnation around the world and increasingly severe economic sanctions against Russia.

With NATO forces massing in the region around Ukraine, various countries have also pledged aid or military support to the resistance. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called for peace talks — so far unsuccessful — while urging his country to fight back.

Putin insists Ukraine has historic ties to Russia and he is acting in the best security interests of his country. Zelenskyy vowed not to bend.

“Nobody is going to break us, we’re strong, we’re Ukrainians,” he told the European Union in a speech in the early days of the fighting, adding, “Life will win over death. And light will win over darkness.”

The Russian attack on Ukraine is an evolving story, with information changing quickly. Follow PEOPLE’s complete coverage of the war here, including stories from citizens on the ground and ways to help.