Photo: Christopher Furlong / Getty Images
The Ukrainian government accused Russia of kidnapping almost 2,389 children, according to Oleg Nikoleno, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, who said that only the 19 March “Russia forcibly relocated 2,389 children” from the eastern region of Donbas.
“The kidnapping of civilians is strictly prohibited by law humanitarian international. The Russian army deprives our children of their parents’ care and endangers their lives in Russia. These heinous crimes must stop,” he tweeted.
Nikoleno did not provide further details on where the children were sent.
The event takes place when , according to reports, up to 5,000 residents were driven out of the besieged city of Mariupol.
Apparently , many were taken to Taganrog, in southwestern Russia, to support Putin’s claim that he was “liberating” Ukraine.
The Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko compared Moscow’s actions to “the horrible events of World War II, when the Nazis captured people by force.”
Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk regional administration, said that “the occupiers are sending Mariupol residents to filtration camps, checking their phones and confiscating their Ukrainian documents.”
For her part, the Ukrainian parliamentarian Inna Sovsun stated that people were being taken to “very distant parts of Russia and being forced to sign documents saying that they would stay in that area for two or three years and that they would work for free in those areas”.
By condemning the “cruel and barbaric attack of the Kremlin against innocent civilians”, the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, compared these events with the actions of the Nazis under Adolf Hitler in the 1200 decade.
Johnson warned that the Russian President would not stop at Ukraine and that a Putin victory would mark “the beginning of a new era of intimidation throughout Eastern Europe and give the green light to autocrats everywhere”.
“This is a turning point for the world. It is a time of choice. It is a choice between freedom and oppression”, he added.
Putin’s forces have forced ten million Ukrainians to leave their homes.
The alleged humanitarian corridors leading from the bombed cities of kyiv, Kharkiv, Mariupol and Sumy have been targeted by missiles from Moscow.
But In the latest blow for Putin, the deputy commander of his Black Sea Fleet, Andrey Paliy, was assassinated. He is the sixth senior military officer Russia has lost since the invasion of Ukraine.
In even more bad news for Russia, a US general warned that his forces were running out of manpower and ammunition and that they had only one week left to conquer the Ukraine.
Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, said the invaders were in trouble. “That is why they have approached China for help and are now recruiting Syrians. Russian generals are running out of time, ammunition and manpower.” The soldier added that on April 1, around 130,000 Russian families should send their children from 18 to 80 years to recruitment centers to be admitted to the Russian army .
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