Ukrainian government reports on how many Ukrainians have already been deported to Russia

KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO — MONDAY, 20 JUNE 2022, 19:56

Iryna Vereshchuk, deputy Prime Minister, has said that Russia has deported about 1,200,000 Ukrainian citizens, including 240,000 children, to Russia.

Source: Vereshchuk at a briefing at the Ukraine Media Centre - Ukrinform

Quote: "I do have a figure of how many Ukrainians have been deported to Russia in total, and it is somewhat different from the one provided by the Russian side. But you should understand that the Russian side never tells the truth. They talk about almost 2 million people.

Our [Ukrainian] intelligence shows that this is approximately 1,200,000 citizens."

Details: Vereshchuk emphasised that 240,000 of the deportees were children, 2,000 of whom were orphans.

She also said that there are more than 300 people at the Azot plant in Sievierodonetsk who have been prevented from being evacuated by the Russians.

Quote from Vereshchuk: "Currently, there are more than 300 people at the Azot plant in Sievierodonetsk. But this is not Azovstal, there are no bomb shelters like that there. Azot is a chemical plant that has no underground infrastructure. We have appealed for a humanitarian corridor to be opened from this plant, we wanted to use the Yuvileinyi Bridge [Jubilee Bridge], which has not been destroyed yet. But the enemy has not allowed us to do this."

More details: Vereshchuk emphasised that evacuation is possible only if civilians ask to leave - it is important that there is no coercion [to evacuate]. 

Previously: On 13 June, the Donetsk Oblast Military Administration reported that the occupiers had deported more than 50,000 residents from Mariupol to Russia and the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk Oblast.

On 18 June, Serhii Haidai, head of the Luhansk Oblast Military Administration, said that civilians in the Azot plant's storage facilities in Sievierodonetsk had refused to evacuate.