Mayor: Russians "adopt" 230 children from Melitopol during occupation

During the occupation of Ukrainian Melitopol, Russians took 230 children from the city and illegally "adopted" them.

Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov said this at a briefing at the Media Center Ukraine - Ukrinform.

"Their hostile fake ministry reported that they had "adopted" 230 children during the full occupation of our city. What does this mean? The enemy has stolen 230 children from us, transferred them to incomprehensible families, in incomprehensible conditions, and now it will be extremely difficult for us to return them after the de-occupation," the mayor said.

In addition, he said, children continue to be taken to Russia to propaganda camps. In particular, the governor of one of the Russian regions openly announced the purpose of taking Ukrainian children "on vacation": to teach them the "true" history, love for Russia and "what the separatist movement really is."

"Over the past four months, they have already taken thousands of children to such camps," Fedorov emphasized.

At the same time, according to his information, since the beginning of May, the invaders have not attempted to "evacuate" civilians from the temporarily occupied territory of Zaporizhzhia.

As reported, since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 385 children have been returned, but 19,592 children are considered forcibly displaced or deported to enemy territory.