Russia has deported over 700,000 children from the occupied territories even before the full-scale invasion

This was reported by Olga Abramenko, an expert from the Memorial Anti-Discrimination Center, during an interview on KYIV24.

“The Children’s Ombudsman of the Russian occupation authorities reported that last year, 730,000 children arrived in Russia from Ukraine, but the vast majority of them were with their parents. The children left for Belarus and Russia with their parents or guardians”, said the expert.

She mentioned that some of these children ended up in temporary accommodation points in Russia, which were organized in about 1,000 locations. These points were established even before the invasion, in mid-February.

“Local authorities in Russian regions issued decrees to organize these points. They started exporting children from Ukrainian childcare facilities in mid-February 2022”, Abramenko reported.

According to her, the human rights organization still does not have data on forcibly removed children from the temporarily occupied territories because “Russia does not provide precise data on deported children”.

Earlier, it was reported that the occupying forces deported around a hundred children from the territory of Ukraine to Russia. The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine noted that these children will be subjected to lectures about the “Russian World,” told about Russian identity, and taught pseudo-history.

Photo: open sources