Ukraine does not receive enough aid from the United Nations or the Red Cross in efforts to return Ukrainians, including children detained in Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this on Thursday, TASR reports based on a report by the AFP agency.
Kiev claims that Russia has captured since the beginning of the February 2022 invasion and until today holds back thousands Ukrainian civilians, including politicians and journalists. “Are we currently receiving much help from organizations such as the UN or the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in protecting and ensuring the return of Ukrainian prisoners held in Russia? Not really,” Zelenskyy said at a conference on human rights in Kyiv.
“We all see, in particular, how weak is the world’s reaction to what Russia is doing to Ukrainian prisoners,” he said. He added that Russia is holding at least six Ukrainian mayors and municipal leaders captive.
Kiev officially this week confirmed the death of the mayor of the occupied Ukrainian city of Dniprorudne. Yevheny Matvieyev died in Russian captivity, while the Russian forces detained him shortly after the outbreak of the invasion, namely in March 2022. In October, Ukrainian officials informed that in Russian captivity award-winning Ukrainian journalist Viktorija Roschynova also died, who was detained by Russian forces while reporting in the occupied east of Ukraine.
In addition, thousands of children were forcibly dragged from Ukraine to Russia, which Kiev calls a war crime. He was released in March 2023 on charges of illegal deportation of Ukrainian children International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian ombudsman for children’s rights Marija Ľvová-Belovová.