The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraineʼs Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets informed that there is official confirmation of the deportation of 19 540 Ukrainian children by Russia.
The ombudsman spoke about this at the international conference on human rights "Freedom or fear".
"If we return one child every day, we need 55 years. And this is against the background of the fact that the Russian Federation continues to deport new and new groups of Ukrainian children," Lubinets noted.
Ukraine is looking for new and concrete tools for the return of Ukrainian children. Now there are not enough opportunities to return everyone.
At the same time, 28 000 Ukrainian civilians are in Russian captivity. Among them, two thousand are people over 65 years old.
"Civilian hostages are, in my opinion, a new system of suppressing the civilian population in the temporarily occupied territories," the commissioner added, noting that there are cases when Ukrainians aged 80-85 were captured only for pro-Ukrainian statements.
Ukraine cannot check their condition, gain access to Russian prisons, or transfer medicine.
The Ombudsman calls on the international community to help Ukraine return its citizens and protect them.
- The day before, Ukraine returned eight more children from deportation and occupation.
- The deportation of Ukrainian children is one of Russiaʼs war crimes, for which the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin and the Childrenʼs Ombudsman of the Russian Federation Maria Lvova-Belova. Currently, it is known about the forced deportation of at least 19 540 Ukrainian children to Russia, less than 400 of them have been returned. Ukraine also has evidence that Belarus participates in the deportation of Ukrainian children.