The Office of the Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights has verified the stay of 12,000 Ukrainian children in the territory of the Russian Federation, 8,600 of whom were forcibly removed from Ukraine, ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets has said, as reported by Radio Liberty.
"As the ombudsman, together with law-enforcement agencies, with the Office of the Prosecutor-General, we know where a particular child was deported from, where and in what status he or she lived in Ukraine, where he or she is now in the Russian Federation, in what status, what actions are being taken against him or her by the Russian authorities," he said.
He noted that Ukrainian law enforcers open criminal proceedings for each such case.