1.6M CHILDREN STOLEN BY PUTINS WAR MACHINE

THE Daily Express today highlights the devastating plight of the 1.6 million Ukrainian children stolen from their families under Russian occupation.

- By Zak Garner-Purkis

We are calling for urgent action as Vladimir Putin's forces continue to groom youngsters to feed the dictator's war machine.

Over the past decade many have been placed in so-called "re-education" programmes to erode their national identity or conscripted into activities that support Russia's military effort.

Campaigners say girls of 15 are being lured to holiday camps and then forced to set land mines, while boys of primary school age are beaten if they speak their native tongue.

Mykola Kuleba, founder of the charity Save Ukraine, told the Express: "Russia has taken 1.6 million child hostages.

"These children's lives have been stolen under the occupation.

"They have no rights or freedom.

We rescue children who have not gone out of their yard for three years and who don't know how to count and read because they were deprived of access to education.

"The kids who have returned tell us that Russia is treating them as hostages and prisoners of war.

"In Putin's prisons, Ukrainian soldiers are forced to sing Russian songs and read nationalistic poetry every day.

"The same thing happens with Ukrainian children in occupied territories. They are subjected to this indoctrination and face punishment for speaking Ukrainian." Mykola warned that Russia's use of child abductions risked setting a dangerous precedent. He said: "Children cannot be used as a bargaining chip.