Ukraine war live updates: At least 12 killed in Russian strike in Vinnytsia

Russian authorities have“Questioning ,Between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, including 260,000 children, from their homes to Russian lands, often to isolated regions of the Far East, US Secretary of State Anthony J. Blinkin He said Wednesday.

Mr. Blinken described the transfers as a “serious violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilians” and a “war crime”.

Russia admitted that 1.5 million Ukrainians are now in Russia, but confirmed that they were evacuated for their own safety.

Ukrainian officials have always sounded the alarm in Russia MigrationsWith President Volodymyr Zelensky Describing the last month against them as “one of the most heinous Russian war crimes”. He said that since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than 200,000 children have been deported.

Testimonials submitted to The New York Times and other news outlets By deportees who fled Russia, it included descriptions of so-called liquidation sites, accounts of interrogations, beatings, torture of those believed to have ties to the Ukrainian armed forces, and disappearances.

European officials described the nomination sites as being set up in schools, sports centers, and cultural institutions in parts of Ukraine recently captured by Russian forces.

From these locations, many Ukrainians were taken to destinations across Russia – often to regions far from Ukraine, near China or Japan, according to testimonies.

Some US officials have raised concerns about Migrationsbut only gave vague assessments of the scale.

Michael Carpenter, United States Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. He said during a speech in Vienna in May That many witnesses gave detailed accounts of the Russian “brutal interrogations” in Filter camps into which at least several thousand Ukrainians were forced into, and at least tens of thousands were deported.

Mr. Blinken’s statement on Wednesday also cited reports that Russian forces are deliberately separating Ukrainian children from their parents and abducting others from orphanages. The statement said witnesses and survivors described “repeated threats, harassment and incidents of torture by Russian security forces.”

In some cases, Ukrainians’ passports have been confiscated, the statement said, and Russian passports have been issued instead, “in an apparent attempt to change the demographic makeup of parts of Ukraine”.

Mr. Blinken said the United States is calling for an immediate halt to deportations and is calling on the Russian authorities to release the detainees and allow them to return home. The statement said independent monitors should be allowed access to the alleged candidacy sites and places to which the Ukrainians were deported.

His statement came on the eve of the Ukraine Accountability Conference, which is taking place on Thursday in The Hague. ConferenceThe Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and the European Commission, which is hosted by the Dutch government, aims to ensure that war crimes in Ukraine do not go unpunished.

“President Putin and his government will not be able to engage in these systematic abuses with impunity,” Mr. Blinken said. “Accountability is imperative.”