US accuses Russia of forcibly deporting Ukrainians

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, speaks after a meeting with Japan's Prime Minister Fumio Kishida at the prime minister's official residence on July 11, 2022, in Tokyo. [VoA,]

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has accused Russia of forcibly deporting hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians from areas it controls in the east and south of the country to Russia.

Blinken said an estimated 900,000 to 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, including 260,000 children, have been interrogated, detained, and deported from their homes to Russia, including to isolated areas in the Far East, through filtration operations.