13 million Ukrainians live in occupation or near the front line
A man injured as a result of a Russian attack on the railway station in Kherson, May 6, 2023 (Photo:REUTERS/Carlos Barria)
About 13 million Ukrainians are living either under occupation or in close proximity to the front line, Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman, said during the 15th annual Kyiv Security Forum on May 26.
“Now Ukrainians have no other chance to survive except to fight,” he said.
Lubinets cited striking figures: 4.8 million Ukrainian citizens have the status of internally displaced persons within Ukraine, more than 8 million Ukrainians fled abroad, while 13 million Ukrainians are living either under occupation or in close proximity to the front line.
At least 20,000 Ukrainian children have been verifiably abducted to Russia. The real numbers could actually be much higher, he said.
The realities of the war showed that there is no international system of human rights protection, the ombudsman added.
“We’re now living in a time when the aggressor country is showing everyone that international humanitarian law, the Convention on the Protection of Children’s Rights, the Geneva Convention are just pieces of paper,” Lubinets said.
“An open genocide is taking place in Ukraine... Who is involved in this? The president of the neighboring state.”
The Kyiv Security Forum founded by former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s Open Ukraine Foundation, is the state’s main platform for discussing issues of war and peace, and national and global security.
The forum’s partners include The Atlantic Council, the NATO Information and Documentation Center, the National Democratic Institute, the Ukrainian Women’s Congress, the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, and the Euro-Atlantic Course.
NV is the Kyiv Security Forum’s official media partner.
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