Zelensky calls on UN to make efforts to stop deportation of Ukrainians to Russia

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on the UN to make efforts to stop the deportation of Ukrainian citizens -- adults and children -- to Russia.

He said this at a briefing following a meeting with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Kyiv on Thursday, Ukrinform reports.

"I called on the Secretary-General to make efforts to stop the deportation of Ukrainian citizens to Russia. Russia is illegally and forcibly relocating adults and children. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have already been abducted. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration are very important tools and the tasks for them now, in our opinion, are to gain access to our citizens who were deported to the Russian Federation and ensure their return home, to Ukraine, as soon as possible," Zelensky said.

He added that the issue of humanitarian aid to Ukraine and financial assistance to citizens who were forced to leave their homes due to the war were also discussed during the meeting with Guterres.

"We discussed in detail today and I received assurances of support through cash payments to our citizens and the growth of humanitarian aid to Ukraine, the importance of UN involvement in the postwar reconstruction of our state," Zelensky said.