The Donetsk regional state administration has dismissed the allegations about 40 children having been killed since the government launched an anti-terrorist operation in the region.

"Today Ukrainian media outlets spread the information that 40 children were killed in Donbas area during the ATO (anti-terrorist operation). With regard to Donetsk region, we hereby inform that four minors have been killed in the region since the beginning of the ATO, including two boys and a girl in Sloviansk and a girl in Shakhtarsk district," the administration said in a statement citing the regional health department on Monday.

According to the Ukrainian health ministry, four children have been killed in Donetsk region during the anti-terrorist operation there; there is no information about children killed in Luhansk region.

Meanwhile, the head of the Ukrainian parliamentary health care committee, Tetiana Bakhteyeva, said on Monday that more than 40 children in Donbas have already died from fragment injuries and gunshot wounds.