“Half a million Ukrainian citizens were deported from Ukraine to the Russian Federation without agreement from their side,” said Mykyta Poturayev, the head of the Ukrainian parliament’s humanitarian committee.
“Unfortunately there is no opportunity for now even contact with these people,” Poturayev told members of the European Parliament by video link.The 1949 Geneva Conventions, which define international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in conflict, prohibit mass forcible transfers of civilians during a conflict to the territory of the occupying power, classifying it as a war crime.
A Russian government resolution on March 12 listed the whereabouts of 95 909 people across Russia who had left Ukraine, including the two breakaway regions Moscow has declared as independent entities.