About 1.6 million Ukrainian children who are in temporarily occupied territories remain at risk of deportation and forced transfer to Russia.
Ukraine’s Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said this during the presentation of a special report, Ukrinform reported.
According to the ombudsman, establishing the exact number of deported children is extremely difficult; however, as far back as 2022 several Russian sources reported that more than 744,000 children had been taken from the temporarily occupied territories to Russia.
Data on crimes committed by the Russian army against children have now been verified in territory controlled by Ukraine. In particular, the occupiers have killed 770 children, a further 3,018 have been injured, 2,349 are considered missing, and 23 have suffered sexual violence. A total of 20,651 cases of deportation or forced transfer have been officially confirmed.
Lubinets stressed that, due to the lack of access to the temporarily occupied territories, Ukraine cannot fully establish and verify the number of children who have been killed, injured or gone missing there.
- Recently Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine has brought back 2,790 children out of more than 20,000 abducted by Russia.