Between 3,500 and 5,000 children from Mariupol went missing after being taken away by the Russian occupiers. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced this in his interview with the French channel BFM TV.
"Some of them went to the territory controlled by Ukraine, to the Zaporizhzhia region. But some were evacuated to the territory controlled by the russian federation. All these thousands of people are missing: children and adults. They are now in different cities, special camps, and some simply disappeared," he said.
The President stresses that a terrible tragedy is taking place there. People at the Azovstal plant do not allow Mariupol to be captured entirely: they are border guards, National Guards, police, a thousand women and children.
"That what they said about few hours left was true. We do not know how many hours or days they can stay there. As for our army, russian military equipment does not allow us to make these few kilometers to get there," the President added.
Yesterday, four evacuation carriers managed to leave through the humanitarian corridor from Mariupol. The evacuation of women, children, and the elderly from Mariupol will continue today.
Yesterday, the 36th Marine Brigade commander, who, together with Azov, defends Mariupol, Major Serhiy Volyna, appealed to world leaders to apply the extraction procedure to the military of the military Mariupol garrison and civilians hiding at the plant. He noted that this may be his last statement, as the defenders "have only a few days or even hours left."
On April 20, Ukraine preliminarily agreed on a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol for women, children, and the elderly. All this time, the occupiers not only kept the city under siege but also hampered the centralized evacuation. An evacuation was possible only by private transport and not every day.
The mayor of Mariupol urged citizens not to be afraid of evacuation and to leave.
Greece and Turkey offered to help in the evacuation from Mariupol. People's Deputy Viktor Medvedchuk, captured by the Security Service of Ukraine, also agreed to be exchanged for the defenders and residents of Mariupol.
According to Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmila Denisova, the occupiers deported more than 121,000 Ukrainian children. This number includes, for example, a 12-year-old orphan deported from Mariupol.