Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that more than 2,000 children had been “stolen” from the besieged port city of Mariupol, which has been under constant Russian attack since the early days of the invasion.
Calling the situation in the city a “humanitarian catastrophe”, Zelensky told a gathering of independent Russian journalists that “according to our information, more than two thousand children have been evacuated. That means stolen. ”
“Their exact location is unknown. They may be there with or without their parents,” Zelensky said. “Overall, it’s a disaster. I can’t tell you what it looks like at all. It’s scary. They hold them like souls for an exchange fund.”
Ukrainian officials have made similar claims in other areas. CNN can not independently verify the allegations about the number of children transferred from Mariupol and other cities to Russia.
What has been claimed? The Russian Defense Ministry initially announced on March 20 that 16,434 people, including 2,389 children, had been evacuated from various locations the day before. The sites included the Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic, according to the ministry, which said the people left voluntarily.
But the next day, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said the same number of children had in fact been forcibly evacuated from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions by Russian forces. “Such actions are a clear violation of international law, especially international humanitarian law,” the ministry said.
Since then, estimates from Ukraine of the number of people deported to Russia have risen.
On Saturday, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk said that the Ukrainian government estimates that the number of Ukrainians forcibly deported to Russia from the invasion was almost 40,000.
These claims were reinforced by Dennis Pushilin, the leader of the pro-Russian People’s Republic of Donetsk, who said on Sunday that about 1,700 people were being “evacuated” daily from the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol and other cities.
“On average, about 1,700 people arrive at the Volodar temporary shelter for the displaced every day and, in turn, the same number leave,” Pushilin told the Telegram, referring to a settlement known in Ukrainian as Nikolske, about 13 miles northwest of Mariupol.
“Residents of Mariupol and other settlements liberated from the occupation of the Kiev regime are arriving here,” Pushilin said. “People are provided with basic necessities, medical care and then evacuated to the Russian Federation.”
Debate on the Red Cross office: Amid disagreements over alleged Russian policy, there has also been controversy over the role of the Red Cross humanitarian network.
On Friday, Vereshchuk accused the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer, of making a “very controversial decision” to open an office in Rostov – about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the border with Ukraine. . Such an office “legitimized” Russia’s deportations, he suggested.
The Red Cross issued a statement denying the allegations. The ICC, which generally maintains a low public profile, responded after calling what it called “false information circulating on the internet” that it was helping Russia move tens of thousands of people out of the country.
He said he did not have an office in Rostov-on-Don, but “is upgrading our regional organization to meet the needs where we see them. Our priority is to ensure that consistent life-saving assistance reaches people wherever they are.”
CNN’s Nathan Hodge, Andrew Carey and Olga Voitovych contributed to the report.
