Russia announces ‘adoption’ of thousands of children deported from occupied Mariupol, Ukraine reacts
It is said the children deported from Mariupol will live in Tyumen, Irkutsk, Kemerovo, and Altai Krai. Another 300 children from Ukraine are now in the queue for “adoption” and remain in “specialized institutions” in Krasnodar Krai.
The spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Oleg Nikolenko, called on Russia to return all kidnapped children to their parents or legal guardians.
Read also: Russia forcing some Ukrainians back to Mariupol, city official says
“Russia reports that a thousand Ukrainian children were unlawfully transferred from occupied Mariupol to Siberia,” he tweeted.
“This is a grave breach of the IV Geneva Convention and UN Convention on Child’s Rights.”
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry announced on July 29 that more than 5,600 children had already been deported to Russia, but that the true number was much higher.
Read also: How Russia is blasting Mariupol into the past
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on July 13 said the Russian invaders had already deported two million residents of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, including several hundred thousand children.
According to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Russia planned measures to filter and deport Ukrainians in the occupied territories before the full-scale invasion, and also used such methods during the war in Chechnya.
Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine
