Volodymyr Zelenskiy pleas UN to take action on deportation

• Volodymyr Zelenskiy has pleaded with a top UN official for help in resolving deportations to Russia.
• Between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainians have been deported, including 260,000 children.
• Filippo Grandi showed his concern about 46 people who were killed in a missile strike.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has pleaded with a top UN official to assist in resolving what Ukrainian authorities see as a significant fallout from the war’s 11-month duration: the deportation of thousands of people and children to Russia.

The claims of large deportations to Russia, frequently to far-flung areas thousands of kilometers from Ukraine, have been criticized by Ukraine for months. Russia refers to large-scale movements as evacuations and rejects any claims of abuse or criminal intent.

In reference to discussions with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi earlier on Wednesday, Zelenskiy stated in his nightly video message, “The discussion focused above all on our people that the occupiers have deported to Russia.”

“These are adults, these are our children. A mechanism is needed to protect and bring back people and to bring to account all those who are guilty of deportation. I am certain the UN institutions can show leadership in resolving this issue.”

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Zelenskiy referred to Russia’s policies of holding refugees in captivity and requiring them to obtain Russian citizenship as genocide. The “state-organized kidnapping of children” has been condemned by Ukraine’s foreign minister.

Grandi said he had been particularly impacted by the aftermath of a missile strike that killed 46 people last week in the central city of Dnipro. Grandi had just finished a six-city trip to Ukraine.

“I have witnessed war in many places,” he said in a video posted on the UNHCR Twitter feed. “But when I see those apartments that have been divided into two pieces … when I learn that people have been killed in one hit, including six children under the rubble, I am left with little to say.”

Zelenskiy has criticized the International Committee of the Red Cross and the 57-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe for their insufficient attempts to address the issue of deportations.

As of January 26, 459 children had been killed and 916 had been injured in the fighting, according to the official Ukrainian portal Children of War. According to the website, 126 of the 14,711 deported children have been returned.

Advocates for human rights in Ukraine mention the potential expulsion of thousands of citizens.

Between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainians have been deported, according to the US State Department, including 260,000 children.

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