President Zelensky accused Russia of “stealing” Ukrainian children by forcing them out of the war zone into territory it controls.
The Ukrainian leader told an independent Russian media outlet that thousands of his country’s citizens had been taken to be used as “an exchange fund” for captured Russian troops.
“According to our figures, more than 2,000 children were taken out,” he said. “Their exact location is unknown. They may be there with or without their parents. It’s a catastrophe.”
Russia denies forcibly taking refugees. Its state media claims that they were glad to leave the war zone.
Zelensky said “collecting” civilians for exchange was “swinery” and could end any desire in Kyiv for peace talks.
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“I said that if they are going to steal children . . . this will all end with there being no talks, no nothing,” he said, according to a transcript published by the Meduza website, based in Latvia. “We won’t agree anything with them.”
The city council of the besieged port of Mariupol, which has been pounded by Russian troops, alleged last week that thousands of residents had been taken over the border against their will.
Lyudmyla Denisova, Ukraine’s human rights ombudswoman, claimed that they were sent 70 miles east to the city of Taganrog, “and from there by rail to various economically depressed cities in Russia”.
Zelensky’s remarks came after the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was accused of “siding with Moscow” in the forced evacuations. The ICRC denied the allegation and said: “We would not support any operation that would go against people’s will and our principles.”
The response came after Roman Rukomeda, a Ukrainian political analyst, published an article on the Euractiv website claiming that the ICRC had “taken the Russian side despite the war crimes these terrorists commit each day in Ukraine”.
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He claimed that there was “evidence of strange behaviour” after the ICRC opened an office to help “Russian terrorists in the illegal deportation of Ukrainian citizens”. The analyst did not offer any further details.
A similar allegation was made by Unian, a Ukrainian news agency.
Matilda Bogner, the UN human rights representative in Ukraine, said on Friday that it was examining reports of forced relocations but had not found evidence of them.
The ICRC said it did not have an office in Rostov-on-Don, a city about 50 miles west of Taganrog. Russian media outlets reported on Thursday that Peter Maurer, the Red Cross president, had asked Moscow to help to open a centre in the city.
Mykhailo Radutskyi, chairman of the Ukrainian parliament’s public health committee, asked the Red Cross “not to support the abduction of Ukrainians”.
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The ICRC said it had been involved in two evacuation operations on March 15 and 18, when it “facilitated the voluntary safe passage of civilians” out of the northeastern city of Sumy.
