Russia deports more than 16,000 children from Ukraine - PGO

Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin stated this at a meeting with Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović, the press service of the Prosecutor General's Office reports.

"One of the most egregious crimes is the forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and Belarus. In May 2022, Putin signed a decree on a simplified procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship for children from Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson," Kostin noted.

According to him, the deportation of more than 16,000 children has been confirmed so far.

"We have managed to return 307 of them. To do more, the help of the international community is needed," Kostin stressed.

As reported by Ukrinform, at a meeting on February 27, Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk and Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović discussed the stay of Ukrainian civilian hostages in Russian captivity.

Since the full-scale war began, 38 prisoner swaps have taken place and 1,863 people have been released from Russian captivity.