Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday urged a senior UN representative to help find a solution against the forced deportation to Russia of thousands of adults and children, which Kyiv denounces as a serious consequence of the war started by Moscow. eleven months ago.
“The discussion focused first and foremost on our citizens who were deported to Russia by the occupiers,” Zelensky said of his meeting today with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights for refugees, Filippo Grandi.
“These are our adults, these are our children”
“These are our adults, these are our children. A mechanism is needed to protect them and bring them back, and to hold all those responsible for these deportations to account,” he continued in a daily video address.
“I am sure that the UN institutions can show their leadership in solving this problem.”
Kyiv has been denouncing mass deportations of Ukrainians to Russia for months, often to lonely regions thousands of miles away. Moscow denies bad intentions and says they are evacuations.
The US State Department estimates the number of Ukrainian deportees at more than 900,000, possibly 1.6 million people, including 260,000 children.
Source: BFM TV
