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Topics: Russia, Vladimir Putin, Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky
Poppy Bilderbeck
Topics: Russia, Vladimir Putin, Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky
Ukraine has accused Russia of 'forcibly deporting' nearly half-a-million civilians.
As the fighting surpasses a month, with President Vladimir Putin having first sent troops across the border on February 24, while the Kremlin leader vowed that civilians would not be targeted in the invasion, residential areas have been the subject of missile strikes, with even hospitals having been attacked and whole cities wiped out.
Ukrainian ombudsperson, Lyudmyla Denisova, has stated that 402,000 people - including 84,000 children - have been forcibly removed from Ukraine and taken to Russia by its armed forces.
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Denisova has warned that some could end up being used as 'hostages'.
Russia has stated that a similar number of Ukrainians have been relocated, but it said that the civilians chose to go, Business Standard reports.
It is now feared that the 'hostages' will be used to pressure Ukraine into a defeat.
At the start of this month, the United Nations revealed that the number of civilians injured stood at 400, including 26 children and that the death toll stood at 136 killed, including 13 children.
Midway through March, the UN stated that 1.5 million of the country's 7.5 million children are reported as having fled Ukraine.
Heartbreaking images have shown the level of devastation caused in Ukraine amid Russia's ongoing invasion, with areas such as Mariupol, Kharkiv and Kyiv particularly badly hit.
Ukrainian civilians have subsequently been left to hide in shelters, try and flee the country, or now be 'forcibly deported' by Russian forces.
One refugee explained her distress at having purchased a new house for her and her son, only to have to be forced to leave it behind as bombs dropped around them.
A petition has since been signed by over 1.3 million people to have Putin face a Nuremberg-style trial.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has heavily condemned Russia's attack, calling the country's bombing of a maternity hospital 'genocide,' and calling Putin's actions 'pure Nazi behaviour'.
After a mother and her two children were killed while fleeing the country, Zelenskyy resolved: "We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will punish everyone who committed atrocities in this war. On our land. We will find every bastard. Which shot at our cities, our people. Which bombed our land. Which launched rockets. Which gave the order and pressed ‘start'. There will be no quiet place on this Earth for you. Except for the grave."
If you would like to donate to the Red Cross Emergency Appeal, which will help provide food, medicines and basic medical supplies, shelter and water to those in Ukraine, click here for more information