Moscow High Official Admits 700 Thousand Children Brought From Ukraine Into Russian Territory

Ukrainian children were forced to flee due to last year's Russian invasion. (Wikimedia Commons/Mrina bauer)

JAKARTA - Russia has brought some 700.000 children from conflict zones in Ukraine into Russian territory, said Grigory Karasin, head of the international committee in the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia's parliament.

"In recent years, 700.000 children have found shelter with us, fleeing bombings and shelling from conflict areas in Ukraine," Karasin wrote on the Telegram message channel, citing Reuters, July 4.

Russia launched a major invasion of its western neighbor in February 2022. Moscow says its program to bring children from Ukraine to Russian territory is to protect orphans and children left behind in conflict zones.

However, Ukraine says many children have been illegally deported, while the United States says thousands have been forcibly removed from their homes.

Most of the movement of people and children occurred in the first few months of the war, as well as before Ukraine began a massive counteroffensive to retake occupied territories in the east and south in late August.

As of July 2022, the United States estimated Russian authorities were "forcibly deporting" 260.000 children. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Integration of the Occupied Territories of Ukraine said that some 19.492 Ukrainian children are currently considered to have been illegally deported.