The Russian army forcibly removed 150 children from the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol, many of them injured and ill in hospital, the Ukrinform news agency reported on Sunday, citing the Crimean human rights group.
“The Russian army forcibly removed about 150 children from Mariupol [e transportouas] to occupied Donetsk and [à parte russa da cidade de] Taganrog,” said Olha Skrypnyk, director of the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Crimean Human Rights Group.
According to Mariupol Mayor’s Advisor Petro Andriushchenko, most of the children were taken from the hospitals without their parents, and residents also took 16 children from a health center.
Andrushchenko stressed that the children were “kidnapped” and not orphans.
“The orphans were removed from Mariupol along with the orphanage staff on February 2425,” the city council said, as quoted by the NGO.
The same source also stated that some of the “kidnapped children lost their parents to Russian war crimes” but “either have guardians in unoccupied territories or are under the protection of the Ukrainian state.”
Ukraine today categorically rejected the ultimatum for the surrender of the Ukrainian military, which is still resisting in the besieged port city of Mariupol, whose lives the Russian army has promised to spare if it lays down arms.
Without food, clean water or heating, Mariupol, where around 120,000 civilians are trapped, is facing one of the world’s greatest humanitarian disasters due to Russian aggression, and local authorities have reported that at least 20,000 civilians have died since the war began in the invasion.
According to the latest UN figures, the military offensive launched by Russia in Ukraine in the early morning hours of February 24 has already forced more than 12 million people to flee, more than 5 million of them to neighboring countries the worst refugee crisis in Europe since Second World War (19391945).
According to the United Nations, around 13 million people in Ukraine are dependent on humanitarian aid.
The Russian invasion justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin as the need to “denazify” and “demilitarize” Ukraine for Russia’s security was condemned by the general public of the international community, which responded by supplying arms to Ukraine and imposing sanctions on Russia, affecting virtually every sector, from banking to sports.
The war in Ukraine, which marks its 54th day today, has already killed nearly 2,000 civilians, according to the UN, which warns the real number is likely to be much higher.