Among the 52 civilians whom the Russians took to Russia from the village of Grabovske in Sumy region on 20 December were children. Ukrainian military personnel were also taken prisoner.
This was announced by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a briefing at the Diplomatic Academy of Ukraine on 22 December, according to Suspilne.
According to new data, 52 civilians who had previously refused to evacuate remained in the border village of Hrabivske. According to Zelenskyy, these citizens ‘had close contacts with the Russians and did not expect them to come in and take them prisoner.’
Among the 52 Ukrainians taken to Russia, there were about 17 men of draft age, the rest were women and children. Russian troops also captured 13 Ukrainian servicemen.
On 20 December, it became known that the Russians had taken more than 50 residents of the village of Grabovskoye, located 200 metres from the Russian border, to Russia. According to Viktor Tregubov, head of the communications department of the Joint Forces Group, the residents of Grabovskoye were taken away by the 36th Russian brigade.
Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights, declared the actions of the Russian military to be illegal. According to him, 50 Ukrainian civilians were held without access to means of communication and proper conditions, and on 20 December they were forcibly taken to Russia, which is a gross violation of international humanitarian law.