Over 400,000 Ukrainians forcibly taken to Russia, Kyiv charges

Ukraine says more than 400,000 of its citizens have been forcibly taken to Russia, after the Foreign Ministry said 6,000 residents of Mariupol had been forcibly moved.

Ukrainian Ombudsman Lyudmyla Denisova says at a briefing Thursday that the Ukrainians were taken to by Russian troops from Mariupol and other besieged Ukrainian cities. The number includes 84,000 children.

She says they are held in primitive conditions with little food and water.

Donetsk Region Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko also says Russians are taking Ukrainians’ passports and then taking people to filtration camps. There, Russian FSB counterintelligence agency officers conduct security checks before moving the Ukrainians to various distant areas in Russia.

Kyrylenko says that Mariupol’s residents had been long deprived of information and the Russians feed them false claims about Ukraine’s defeats to persuade them to move to Russia.

“Russian lies may influence those who have been under the siege,” he said.

Russian officials reported Wednesday that over 384,000 Ukrainians had voluntarily traveled to Russia where they were being offered accommodation and payments.