Zarivna: Number of children deported by Russia may far exceed 19,546

The operational director of the Bring Kids Back UA initiative said this on television, Ukrinform reports.

“Currently, we have information about 19,546 children who were illegally deported or forcibly displaced. At the same time, it is important to understand that this figure can be much higher, because in 2022, the Russians, namely Maria Lvova-Belova, called the figure of 744,000 Ukrainian children who were taken to the territory of Russia. After the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, they stopped giving any figures publicly. Thus, it is very difficult to say what the exact number is,” said Zarivna.

She also called to remember the 1.6 million Ukrainian children who are in the temporarily occupied territories.

“Every day they are subjected to indoctrination, militarization, and ideological brainwashing. And this is also a very important figure that we need to keep in mind when we talk about this issue,” said Daria Zarivna.

Speaking of numbers, she also recalled the 2,245 children whose names are in the register that keeps track of missing persons under special circumstances.

“In our case, special circumstances are war. And it is important to understand that forcibly displaced or deported children can be considered missing at the same time. This register, which accounts for missing persons under special circumstances, is located within the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and exchanges data with the register of deported children, which is subordinate to the Ministry of Justice,” Zarivna said.

She emphasized that the key problem is that the Russian side does not provide information about deported Ukrainian children.

“Russia does not provide any information about these children either to us or to any international organizations. And this is a key problem for the crystallization of the numbers and in general for the search for information, data verification,” said the COO of the Bring Kids Back UA initiative.

As Ukrinform reported, nine more Ukrainian children were rescued from the temporarily occupied territories today.

Photo: Servant of the People