Russia gives shelter to some 30,000 Ukrainian children
MOSCOW. July 23 (Interfax) - Eight children were taken from Ukraine to Russia by human rights activists in the past three days, Russian children's rights ombudsman Pavel Astakhov said.
"People keep asking us to take the children from there in the course of the military action. Ukrainian citizens have recently begun asking as too. We took out eight such children in the past three days. One of them is a four days old boy. We are helping people, regardless of their Ukrainian citizenship. We are not looking at passports in such case," Astakhov told reporters on Wednesday.
Astakhov said children who need medical assistance are special cases because it is currently not possible to give them the assistance they need on the territory of southeastern Ukraine.
Astakhov said Ukrainian human rights activists are asking for orphans not to be allowed to enter Russia. However, according to the Russian authorities, there are 1,223 orphans on the territory of Ukraine who need evacuation.
"We are ready to take them. It doesn't matter to us where they will be taken. The main thing is that they should be taken farther from the war," Astakhov said.
There are a total of 28,741 children in Russia who are forced migrants from Ukraine, he said.
"According to our information, 201,426 people are now forced migrants from Ukraine, and 28,741 of them are children. Some children have arrived without their legal representatives. Some of them were raised in so-called family orphanages," Astakhov said.
Most of the newly arriving citizens of Ukraine are not ready to hand in their passports and register as refugees because they are hoping to return to Ukraine. "There is a category of citizens who have nothing to lose. They get registered," Astakhov said.