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Russian diplomat says UK channel exaggerates situation with Ukrainian children

Dmitry Polyansky said that since 2014 almost 5 million Ukrainians have moved to Russia, including more than 730 thousand children

LONDON, April 21. /TASS/. UK journalists ignore facts and exaggerate stories about what they claim was a forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia during the conflict in Ukraine, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky has told Sky News.

The diplomat said that almost five million Ukrainians, including over 730,000 children, have moved to Russia since the conflict broke out in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

"The vast majority of them arrived with their parents or relatives. Of course, there is some number of orphans, but again these orphans are being taken temporarily in the foster families and it is not adoption, it is guardianship - it's a different situation in the international law," he said. "So by blowing out this story you are neglecting the facts, you are absolutely ignoring the real situation on the ground."

When asked to comment on a Sky News report about 15 Ukrainian children, who fled to Georgia from Russia, Polyansky said: "It is very difficult for me to check the authenticity of the material you are showing."

Russia intends to return children who have been evacuated from the conflict zone to Ukraine when the conditions there are safe enough for that, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said at a news conference in late March.

Ukraine has repeatedly accused Russia of abducting children from Ukraine and illegally deporting them to its territory. Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky vowed that his country was "doing everything possible to bring every Ukrainian child back home."

On March 17, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and presidential commissioner for children's rights Maria Lvova-Belova on charges of "illegal deportation" of Ukrainian children. Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Moscow did not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that the ICC decisions do not have any significance for Russia and that possible arrest warrants were legally null and void.

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