Ukraine’s deputy UN ambassador Khrystyna Hayovyshyn told the council that 2.5 million people, including 38,000 children, have been forcibly expelled from the country as part of a Russian “filtering” program. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has also documented cases of “filtering”, it said. During these cases, “the Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups subjected individuals to body searches, sometimes with forced stripping and detailed interrogations about the individual’s personal background, family ties, political views and allegiances ”, according to Ilze Brands Kehris. , United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights. Brands Kehris said there had been credible allegations of forced transfers of children from Ukraine to “Russian-occupied territories or the Russian Federation itself”. “We are concerned that the Russian authorities have adopted a simplified process for granting Russian citizenship to children without parental care and that these children will be eligible for adoption by Russian families,” he added. In addition, Brands Kehris said men and women “considered to have ties to Ukrainian armed forces or state institutions or to have pro-Ukrainian or anti-Russian views” are being subjected to torture, arbitrary detention and “enforced disappearance.” Russian officials have said claims of forced “filtering” are unfounded, adding that new entrants to the country go through “registration”, not filtering. Refugees and displaced persons in Russia are being provided with health and financial assistance, Russian UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said in remarks to the UN Security Council on Wednesday. It is very unfortunate that human rights organizations are making baseless allegations against Russia, Nebenzia said. “We have wasted time” discussing this issue rather than real issues, the ambassador added. Meanwhile, Rosemary DiCarlo, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, said more than 6.9 million people remain internally displaced in Ukraine, with most of the newly displaced coming from eastern and southern Ukraine. There have been 5,718 civilians killed, including 372 children, and 8,199 injured, including 635 children, during the war so far, he said. DiCarlo added that “these are only verified figures and the actual numbers are likely significantly higher.”
