The war in Ukraine enters its twelfth month this week. The opportunity for the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, to make a new assessment of the conflict. This Monday from his presidential office, in a statement, the head of the Ukrainian army assured that the “Russian occupiers (…) kidnap” people.
Some two million Ukrainians “were forcibly taken to Russia, deported,” denounced Volodymyr Zelensky.
“It is pure and hard kidnapping”
It is not the first time that the Ukrainian president accuses Vladimir Putin’s army of “kidnapping” and “deporting” part of the population.
Already in April 2022, two months after the start of the war, Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of “500,000 Ukrainians deported to Russia”. His wife, First Lady Olena Zelenska, denounced the transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia in December 2022 on the BFMTV set.
“It’s pure and simple kidnapping,” Olena Zelenska declared, even using the term “deportation”: “We lose these children and we don’t know what happens to them.”
In his Monday statement, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also denounced the “destruction” and “robbery” organized by Vladimir Putin’s army. “Theft is reigning. Everything they haven’t destroyed, they steal and send it to Russia. Everything,” he said.
Source: BFM TV
