"Since the start of the special military operation, Russian regions have received more than 5 million residents of Ukraine and the Donbass republics who voluntarily left for our country, of which more than 730 thousand are children," TASS quoted him as saying.

He stressed that the vast majority of these children had arrived with their parents or other relatives.

"Only 2,<> of them are pupils of orphanages in the DPR and LPR, who arrived together with the heads and educators of the institutions," Nebenzia added.

Earlier, Nebenzia said about the hypocrisy of Western countries, which for eight years turned a blind eye to the shelling of Donbass cities by Ukrainians, and at the moment blame the Russian side for the Ukrainian shelling of people living there.