Over half million Ukrainians 'forcibly taken' to Russia: Zelenskyy

By Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA (AA) - More than half a million Ukrainians have been "forcibly" taken to Russia, the Ukrainian president said on Wednesday.

Addressing the parliament of Estonia via videoconference, Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed Russia aims to take displaced Ukrainians to remote regions of Russia, taking away all their personal belongings, documents, and confiscating their mobile phones.

"Today, more than 500,000 Ukrainians have been forcibly displaced. Just imagine how much it is! This is as if the occupiers set, sorry for the example, the goal of deporting all people from Tallinn. The whole city - it was and now there is no one. A third of all your citizens," he said.

Zelenskyy went on to say that Russian forces also want to separate Ukrainian children from their families, allowing Russians to illegally adopt them. "Attempts to return to Ukraine are being hindered in every possible way," he added.

- New package of sanctions

Zelenskyy said international institutions mandated to support peace have not been able to stop "Russia's aggression."

On imposing further sanctions against Russia, he said: "I urge you to finally add oil to the sanctions package. An embargo is needed at the level of the entire EU."

He also invited Estonia to investigate "war crimes of the Russian army" on Ukrainian territory.

The "war crimes" include the execution of civilians, torture, rape, blowing up hospitals, bombing of maternity hospitals, burning of food warehouses, artillery shelling of shelters in which children are hiding, he claimed.

"There is no crime that Russian soldiers have not committed in the 49 days of this invasion."

- Prohibited munitions

The Ukrainian president said Russian forces use "all kinds of artillery, missiles and air bombs in residential areas and again civilian infrastructure. In particular phosphorus bombs and other munitions prohibited by international law."

"This is an obvious terror against the civilian population," he said. "It is an attempt to break the morale of the people, to subdue Ukrainians for generations or simply to destroy them."

He reiterated that Ukraine "must receive" the status of a candidate for EU membership "in the near future."