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A Ukrainian lawmaker said on Sunday that Russian forces were forcibly deporting civilians – including children – to the besieged Russian city of Mariupol.
“They withdrew these people from Mariupol,” Ukrainian MP Evgenia Kravchuk told ABC’s This Week on Sunday. “It’s something that can’t happen in the 21st century.”
The comments came when Kravchuk provided up-to-date information on the humanitarian catastrophe in Mariupol. She claims that Russia does not respect a humanitarian corridor that would allow civilians to escape the city unharmed.
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“They are trying to make forced deportations on Russian territory from Mariupol. They take people – they even take children who have lost their parents and send them to Vladivostok, “Kravchuk said, referring to the Far Eastern Russian city of about 6,000 people. miles away. “We do not know how to return them to Ukraine.
Smoke rises above the Azovstal plant in Mariupol. (Reuters / Alexander Ermochenko)
Kravchuk said Ukrainians were going through “filtration camps” where Russian troops were separating men in search of Ukrainian soldiers.
“We really hope that with the help of other Western leaders, other leaders of the (civilized) world, we will be able to save children and women who are still in the basement of the massive Azovstal plant.
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Mariupol has been a key Russian target since the invasion began on February 24. The takeover of the city would allow the creation of a land corridor from Russia’s border to the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014. This would also deprive Ukraine of a major port and valuable industrial assets. Most of the neon used in modern microprocessors, for example, comes from companies based in Mariupol.
Smoke rises above the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, in this still image obtained from a recent video with a drone posted on social media. (Mariupol City Council / via Reuters)
Since the battle for the city began on March 1, the Russian army has been ruthlessly hitting Mariupol with artillery shelling and airstrikes, comparing most of the once bustling city. The indiscriminate bombing hit homes, hospitals and other public buildings, killing thousands.
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Mariupol Mayor Vadim Boychenko estimates that at least 21,000 people have been killed in Mariupol and another 120,000 remain in Mariupol from a pre-war population of about 450,000.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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