More than 11,500 people, including 1,847 children, were transported from Ukraine to Russia on Monday without the participation of the Kiev authorities, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
That number includes civilians who have fled pro-Russian separatist regions, the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Danetsk and Luhansk, which Moscow recognized as independent states before launching an invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
The Russian government claims that these civilians are leaving voluntarily. Kyiv accuses Moscow of forcibly deporting Ukrainians.
The Russian government calls the invasion of Ukraine a “special military operation” aimed at “demilitarizing” and “de-Naziizing” its neighbor. The Ukrainian government and Western governments are talking about an “unprovoked” offensive war.
On Monday, the first civilians to leave the giant Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol arrived in the Ukrainian-controlled city of Zaporizhia as part of an operation coordinated by the UN and the Red Cross with the involvement of the Russian and Russian armed forces.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, almost 200,000 children were among the 1.1 million people who were transferred from Ukraine to Russian territory after February 24.
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