More than 2,000 Ukrainian children have been “kidnapped and deported to Russia ”, an act that has been called a “gross violation” of international law.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs shared the damning update in a Facebook post, which accused the "aggressor state" of Russia of kidnapping children.
The post read: “According to the information received, on March 19, Russian occupation forces illegally took 2389 children to the territory of the Russian Federation, who were in the temporarily occupied areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
“Forced relocation of civilian population to the territory of the aggressor state, in particular children, has signs of kidnapping.
"Such actions are a gross violation of international law, in particular international humanitarian law.”
The MFA carried on to say that by “destroying homes and killing parents”, Russia deprives Ukrainian children of parental care and puts their lives in further danger.
An urgent response from the international community is needed, the statement said, to stop the barbaric war against the Ukrainian people.
It continued: “The facts of kidnapping children, as well as hundreds of other facts of crimes by Russian occupiers against civilians in Ukraine, are carefully documented by law enforcement.
“The culprits of these crimes will be brought to justice."
The abduction or illegal removal of children during a period of conflict is one of the six “grave violations” named and condemned by the UN Security Council.
These six violations make up the basis of the Council’s framework to monitor, report and respond to abuses suffered by children in times of war.
Just last week, the Kremlin was accused of war crimes against children for bombing a Ukrainian theatre in Mariupol, which was housing a number of youngsters.
Sheltering Ukrainians painted the word "children" outside the theatre in a desperate but futile attempt to deter a Russian attack.
The large letters spelling out the Russian script warning came before forces went on to drop a powerful bomb on the theatre that was being used as a shelter for families.
The city council said it's "impossible to estimate the scale of this horrific and inhumane act" and that efforts were underway to find the identities of the victims - and just how many innocent Ukrainians were slaughtered.
They confirmed the central part of the venue was completely destroyed, as was the entrance to an area being used as a bomb shelter.
The death toll from the bombing is still unknown, but more than 1,000, including women and babies, are still feared trapped in the bombed ruins of the theatre.
It comes as an elite Spetsnaz fighter who used Stalin’s real name as an alias has today been named among three special forces fighters killed in the battle for besieged Mariupol.
The GRU spetsnaz are seen as Russpesia ’s top special forces fighters and were deployed to Ukraine to bring death and fear to its people.
According to local sources, three of its troops were “liquidated” by the Azov regiment of the National Guard of Ukraine.
The trio were named as Captain Konstantin Druzhkov, 33, Islam Abduragimov, 19 and Shamil Aselderov.
Their documents were discovered in a captured Tigr armoured vehicle.
Druzhkov was married to someone from the Donbas region of Ukraine and served in the military intelligence HQ of Russia’s southern military district.
He had been involved in fighting in the Donbas in 2014 and used the pseudonym Konstantin Dzhugashvili on a social media account concealing his real identity.
Dzhugashvili was the real family name of the Soviet Union’s brutal wartime leader, Josef Stalin, who died in 1953 aged 74 of a stroke.
The GRU are notorious in Russia and one of their squads was behind the poisoning with Novichok of its former spy Sergei Skripal - who had defected to Britain - in Salisbury in 2018.
