Moscow denied Washington's accusation that officials in the office of Russian President Vladimir Putin were involved in the detention and forcible deportation of 1.6 million Ukrainians to Russia, while a UN official said that the US accusations of forced deportation were "credible".

The US Ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas Greenfield, said at a meeting of the UN Security Council on Wednesday that her country's estimates from various sources indicate that the Russian authorities have interrogated, detained and forcibly deported between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainians from their homes to Russia.

"The United States has information that officials from the Russian presidential administration are supervising and coordinating the liquidation operations," the US delegate added.

According to the same official, "more than a quarter of a million Ukrainian children were also subjected to this forced deportation, and some of them were separated from their families and taken from orphanages before being put up for adoption in Russia."

Greenfield described Russia's actions as a serious violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons and as a war crime, and claimed that the purpose of the detentions and deportations was to "change feelings of force, to provide a deceptive appearance of the legitimacy of the Russian occupation and the eventual annexation of more Ukrainian territory."

Russian refusal

On the other hand, Russia's representative to the Security Council, Vasily Nebenzia, rejected these accusations, describing them during a meeting held on Wednesday in the Security Council as "baseless, and a milestone in the disinformation and propaganda campaigns against our country."

Addressing the US delegate, Nebenzia added, "What horror movie did you tell us today? Is this a movie prepared by the Ukrainian Ministry of Propaganda?"

The Russian delegate said that his country is "the largest country that receives Ukrainian refugees, and these are not held in prisons, as happened, for example, in Guantanamo Bay (which includes the notorious American prison), but they live freely and voluntarily in Russia, and no one prevents them from moving to it or leaving it."

Nebenzia said that Ukrainians destined for Russia are subject to "registration procedures, not screening", as is the case in Poland or in other European Union countries hosting Ukrainian refugees since the start of the Russian war on Ukraine on February 24.

The Russian delegate said that his country is the largest country that receives Ukrainian refugees and that they are not held in prisons (French)

UN official

The US accusations against Russia have received international support, as Brands Kerris, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, said yesterday, Wednesday, that there are "credible" accusations of forcibly transferring Ukrainian children to Russia, expressing fear that Russian families will adopt these children.

"We are concerned that the Russian authorities have adopted a simplified procedure for granting Russian citizenship to children who are not under the guardianship of their parents, and for the eligibility of these children to be adopted by Russian families," Keres said - during a Security Council session requested by Albania and the United States to talk about forced transfers in Ukraine.

According to the UN official, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was able to confirm that the Russian armed forces have established "sorting" centers where they conduct security checks and collect personal and biometric data.

It added that people leaving a combat zone or crossing into Russian-controlled territory are subject to inspections.