During the two weeks of the new year, the occupiers kidnapped approximately two thousand children.
This was stated by the US Ambassador to the OSCE Michael Carpenter at a special meeting of the Permanent Council, Ukrinform reports.
He added that Russian forces illegally relocated or deported thousands of Ukrainian civilians from Russian-controlled Ukrainian territories to Russia, “which is another serious violation of the Geneva Conventions.”
In addition, the American ambassador noted that in the occupied Donetsk and Luhansk lists of children who must be drafted into the army after reaching adulthood are already being compiled. “Children born in 2005 and 2006 are already subject to mandatory military registration. Such premeditated planning to use Ukrainian children as cannon fodder in Russiaʼs war — and I have no other words here — is simply outright evil,” added Carpenter.