In recent months, Russian mass media have reported that more than 2.8 million Ukrainians from the occupied territories have left for Russia since the start of the full-scale invasion, and this figure is growing every day. Since the beginning of the military aggression against Ukraine, 4,568,032 people, 717,853 children and 943,001 vehicles have crossed the border with Russia from the territory of Ukraine, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense’s humanitarian headquarters.
Since the beginning of the full-scale war, it has been known that the migration of Ukrainians to Russia, who live in the temporarily occupied territories, is forced in nature. The occupation administrations and the armed forces of the Russian Federation gave the opportunity to leave Russia only via a fixed routes. To date, there are already thousands of facts of violations of the laws and customs of war, in particular, the deportation of Ukrainians to the territory of Russia.
During the Russian Federation’s full-scale war against Ukraine, the Russians deported Ukrainian children to at least 57 regions of Russia, including Sakhalin and Dagestan. About 400 minors were adopted by Russian families. Russia does not provide any information about the children and their places of detention either to the Red Cross International Committee or to UNICEF. Russia does not allow access to the deported children and violates the norms of the Protocol Additional I to the Geneva Convention.
The Russians are trying to avoid the concentration of Ukrainians in one territory. Therefore, they are resettled in different Russian regions in order to be forcibly integrated into Russian society, which is a sign of the destruction of Ukrainian identity. Putin hides the deportation of residents of the occupied territories of Ukraine by pretending to care about the people.
Today, the Russian authorities have no intention of returning the forcibly deported Ukrainians back to Ukraine after the end of hostilities. Ukrainians are being deported to remote areas of Russia to make their return home as difficult as possible.
The civilized world needs to firmly condemn Russia for the forcible deportation of Ukrainians, in particular through the mechanism of increased sanctions and complete international isolation.