Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy said Wednesday that 200,000 children are among the Ukrainians who
have been forcefully taken to Russia and dispersed across the vast
country.
They include children from
orphanages, children taken with their parents and those separated from their
families.
The purpose of this criminal
policy is not just to steal people but to make those who are deported forget
about Ukraine and unable to return, Zelenskyy said in his nightly
video address to the nation on Wednesday, which was International Children’s
Day.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine would
punish those responsibly but first, it would show Russia on the
battlefield that Ukraine cannot be conquered, that our people will
not surrender and our children will not become the property of the occupiers.
Zelenskyy said 243 children
have been killed so far in the war, 446 have been wounded and 139 are missing,
adding that it could be more as his government doesn’t have a full picture of
the situation in areas occupied by Russian troops.
He then described the deaths
of 11 children, calling them by their first names and saying how they were
killed.
