The Russian Foreign Ministry has accused Ukraine of misleading the international community regarding allegations of abducted children, citing a list of names provided by Kyiv to Moscow.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated during a press briefing that the Ukrainian government is deceiving the world about the scale of the issue.
Zakharova said the only official confirmation regarding the alleged abductions is a list containing 339 names that the Ukrainian side handed over to Russian officials.
The spokeswoman claimed that half of the individuals on the provided list are adults.
She said that by handing over this document, authorities in Kyiv had essentially admitted to frankly misleading the global community when they speak about searching for tens, hundreds or thousands of Ukrainian children.
Ukraine and various international organisations have repeatedly accused Russia of unlawfully deporting children from occupied Ukrainian territories to Russia since the start of the widespread conflict.
The International Criminal Court previously issued arrest warrants for senior Russian officials over the deportation allegations, which Moscow has consistently rejected as baseless.
Independent Bucha investigation
During the same briefing, Zakharova announced that Russia plans to publish the results of an independent investigation into the events that took place in the Ukrainian town of Bucha.
She stated that the upcoming report places a strong emphasis on what she described as large scale falsifications orchestrated by Western nations.
Bucha, a town located just outside the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, became a focal point of international condemnation in early 2022.
Following the withdrawal of Russian forces from the area, Ukrainian officials and international investigators reported finding evidence of widespread atrocities and killings of civilians.
The Russian government has repeatedly denied any involvement of its military personnel in the deaths of civilians in Bucha.
Moscow has consistently dismissed the international reports and photographic evidence as staged events or fabrications designed to discredit the Russian state.
