Moscow has been accused of unlawfully detaining, interrogating and deporting up to 1.6 million Ukrainians, including 1,800 children. “There have been credible allegations of forced transfers of unaccompanied children to Russian occupied territory, or to the Russian Federation itself,” Ilze Brands Kehris, the assistant UN secretary-general for human rights, told the Security Council on Wednesday. “We are concerned that the Russian authorities have adopted a simplified procedure to grant Russian citizenship to children without parental care, and that these children would be eligible for adoption by Russian families.” Russian forces were also placing Ukrainians in occupied territories through invasive security checks that have involved numerous human rights violations, Ms Ilze Brands Kehris said. She said some Ukrainians judged as close to the Ukraine government or military have been tortured and forcibly removed and sent to Russian penal colonies and other detention centres. Russian UN Ambassador Vasily Nebenzya has rebuffed the allegations, calling them “unfounded”. He claimed Ukrainians were fleeing their country “to save themselves from the criminal regime”. Follow the latest updates below.
