President Volodymyr Zelensky said that during the negotiations in Istanbul, the Russians called the issue of stolen children a “show for childless European old ladies” and admitted that they had abducted several hundred children.
The head of state said this during a briefing on Monday, Ukrinform reports.
“I would like our journalists and our people to understand their (Russians’) attitude to the humanitarian aspect. The first thing they told us was that we ‘should not organize a show for childless European old ladies.” This is their attitude to us raising the issue of children. And we told them that they had abducted 20,000. They said they never abducted 20,000, at most it was hundreds,” Zelensky said.
According to the president, this is “an important fixation not of the number, but of the very fact that they admit that they abducted children.”
The President also reported that the Ukrainian delegation at the negotiations in Istanbul handed over to the Russian side a list of the names of almost 400 children.
“And they offered us to do something in this direction regarding up to 10 children. This is their vision on humanitarian issues,” Zelensky said.
As Ukrinform reported, earlier, the COO of the Bring Kids Back UA initiative, Daria Zarivna, stated that the number of Ukrainian children removed from Ukraine by Russia could be much higher than the officially confirmed 19,546.
