The shrapnel keyring showing Russian “barbarity” made by Ukrainian children

A keyring made from a piece of shrapnel was used to illustrate “the barbarity and inhuman nature of the Russian actions” by the EU’s foreign affairs spokesman.

Peter Stano explained that Ukrainian children had made the item from a missile fragment they found after their school was targeted.

Speaking on the day after another night of Russian bombardment in which 22 people including three children were killed, Mr Stano said: “This is a piece of shrapnel from a bomb, heavy of 500 kilogrammes. This is one of those which are being dropped on civilian targets in Ukraine. This one was collected from the ruins of a school by children.”

He said children were collecting the shrapnel to show “what is flying around after every explosion”.

Earlier this week a school in Kramatorsk was hit by a Russian missile, one of hundreds damaged or destroyed since the full-scale Russian invasion.

According to the Centre for Information Resilience, a non-profit digital research organisation, 381 schools have been hit, one in seven in some areas.

The Ukrainian authorities put the figure much higher, saying 3,000 schools have been damaged and 370 destroyed since the start of the fighting.