Ukraine accuses Russia of forcibly deporting more than 200,000 children.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine accused Russia of forcibly deporting hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians from occupied territories, calling the continuing campaign “one of Russia’s most heinous war crimes.”

Speaking to the nation in his nightly address Thursday, he said that more than 200,000 children had been deported since the war began.

“These are orphans from orphanages. Children with parents. Children separated from their families,” he said. “The Russian state disperses these people on its territory, settles our citizens, in particular, in remote regions. The purpose of this criminal policy is not just to steal people, but to make deportees forget about Ukraine and not be able to return.”

Russia has denied that people are being forced to leave Ukraine, saying that the 1.5 million Ukrainians now in Russia were evacuated for their own safety. Read more

@nytimes