Ukrainian war, Kiev: “2,389 children ‘kidnapped’ from Russia”

2,389 children have been “kidnapped” in eastern Ukraine since the start of the conflict, that is, “illegally” removed from the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk. This was reported by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry and the American Embassy in Kiev, which withdrew its staff on the eve of the Russian invasion. ” According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Russian forces illegally transported 2,389 Ukrainian children from Donetsk and Luhanks oblasts to Russia. This is not assistance. It is a kidnapping, ” reads the Twitter account of the Washington embassy in Kiev. Meanwhile, the Russian embassy in the United States has denied reports that Ukrainian civilians fleeing the front have been forcibly transferred to Russia. Moscow – claims the embassy – is simply operating checkpoints “to avoid diversionary operations” by Ukraine. These allow Russian troops to “carefully inspect motor vehicles headed for safe regions.” “The Russian army does not create obstacles to the peaceful population, but it helps them to stay alive by providing food and medicine,” he says again.