Estonian politician reports on his trip to Mariupol and states he has not seen "abducted children"
Andres Raid, a deputy candidate from the Estonian right-wing party EKRE, said that he travelled to Mariupol, occupied by Russia, and did witness there any "evidence" of the abduction of Ukrainian children, which Ukraine, the international community and human rights defenders have been reporting.
Source: Ryde spoke about his trip in an interview with the Kuku radio station, reports European Pravda.
Details: The politician, formerly a journalist, claims that he travelled through several cities of Donetsk Oblast and, on the advice of a "good colleague", visited Mariupol to research if there was any abduction of children there.
Quote: "Being on location, made it quite clear that we [in Estonia - ed.] were mainly told something completely different. Indeed, we know about one person who left via Estonia to somewhere in Europe, it is not known exactly where, but they did leave. Same thing applies to children," he said.
Raid goes on to say that due to the war, Ukrainian residents also leave for Russia, because they have relatives there, and in the Donetsk Oblast "there has always been a predominantly Russian-speaking population."
"And the second question is why would someone from the ‘liberated Ukrainian territories’ go somewhere? On the contrary, those who left can simply return to the ‘liberated territory’," said the Estonian politician, further talking about his visit to the school where "well-dressed children were learning to dance the waltz for graduation."
Later in the interview, Raid also mentioned that he received "permission" to enter the Russian-occupied Donetsk Oblast for five months, and expressed hope that such trips will take place in the future by other Estonian journalists as well.
EKRE Chairman Henn Põlluaas, as reported by Postimees, stated that he was not aware of this party member's trip to Mariupol, and promised that the matter would be discussed within the political force.
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