US embassy accuses Russia of kidnapping children amid reports it’s deporting thousands of Ukrainians by force

• The US Embassy in Kyiv accused Russia of “kidnapping” Ukrainians and forcibly deporting them to Russia. 
• “According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Russian forces have illegally removed 2,389 Ukrainian children from Donetsk and Luhanks oblasts to Russia,” the Embassy said. 
• Officials in Mariupol alleged that Russian troops are forcibly deporting Ukrainians into Russia as attacks on Ukrainian cities intensify.

The US Embassy accused Russia of “kidnapping” thousands of Ukrainian children as local officials alleged Russian troops are forcing deportations of civilians as they bombard eastern cities. 

“According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Russian forces have illegally removed 2,389 Ukrainian children from Donetsk and Luhanks oblasts to Russia,” the US Embassy in Kyiv tweeted Tuesday.

“This is not assistance. It is kidnapping,” they said. 

—U.S. Embassy Kyiv (@USEmbassyKyiv) March 22, 2022

On Monday, Ukraine accused Russia of forcing Ukrainians in the besieged city of Mariupol into Russia, Insider previously reported. 

Ukrainian MP Inna Sovsun said Sunday that those trapped in Mariupol were taken across the border against their will.

“They’re taking Ukrainian citizens, sending them through what are called filtration camps, and then relocating them to distant parts of Russia to work for free,” Sovsun told Times Radio. “This is the logic of Nazi Germany.” 

Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine’s human-rights spokesperson, also alleged that Ukrainians were being “sent by rail to various economically depressed cities in Russia.”

Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boichenko also compared the “kidnappings” to the work of the Nazis during World War II. 

“What the occupiers are doing today is familiar to the older generation, who saw the horrific events of World War II when the Nazis forcibly captured people,” he told CNN on Saturday.

The reports of forced removals have not yet been independently verified, though Russian state news agency TASS claimed that millions are asking to be moved into Russia.