Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Iryna Vereshchuk said that the number of forcibly removed Ukrainians may now amount to 40 thousand.

The Vice Prime Minister noted that "the occupant cynically abducts thousands of people from combat zones or temporarily occupied territories and takes them to unknown destinations - through quasi-humanitarian corridors that he himself creates without the approval of Ukraine. At the same time, the Ukrainian government is obstructing the evacuation of civilians in every possible way. A great many of our compatriots have already ended up in a foreign land unwillingly.

Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine Irina Vereshchuk said that yesterday 53 buses with Mariupol people who were blocked at the Russian checkpoint in Vasilievka together with ambulances with the sick and children finally managed to get to Zaporozhye.

"In total, more than 4 thousand people will have warm food, household comfort, and most importantly, safety already today. We remind you that Mariupol residents- to get to the saving buses - should get to Berdyansk on their own. Mostly on foot - such cynical conditions of the occupants", - the message says.

Meanwhile, Russia is creating its own so-called "evacuation routes" for Mariupol residents in RF.

"It is expected that most of the townspeople do not want to "save themselves" in the territory of the aggressor. Consequently, Russian troops are forcibly transporting civilians deep into the occupied territories or into Russia itself. We are already talking about tens of thousands of Ukrainians forcibly relocated in this way," says Iryna Vereshchuk.

She named the approximate number of Ukrainians forcibly deported by Russia - it is almost 40 thousand.

The occupant acts according to a similar scheme in the temporarily occupied part of Kyiv region, trying to take our people to Belarus by force.