A display of 20,000 teddy bears appeared on the National Mall in Washington, DC, on Thursday to represent Ukrainian children who have been forcibly taken to Russia since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, AFP reported.
The demonstration, organized by Razom for Ukraine and the American Coalition for Ukraine, was held near the US Capitol under the message: “Bring Them Home.”
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Melinda Haring, senior advisor for Razom for Ukraine, said the display was meant to show the scale of the abductions.
“There are 20,000 teddy bears on this fence,” Haring said. “Each of these teddy bears represents a Ukrainian child that was taken since 2022. Now, there’s officially about 20,000 Ukrainian children. The number is definitely larger than that, but we’re here to draw attention to Vladimir Putin and what he did to Ukrainian children.”
Ukraine’s ambassador to the US, Olha Stefanishyna, urged lawmakers to keep pressure on the issue.
“We urge our colleagues from the Senate and Congress not to forget, to keep this wheel running,” Stefanishyna said. “Your attention, your energy keeps the attention of your government on the topic.”
US Senator Richard Blumenthal called the abductions a war crime.
“What Putin is doing to tens of thousands of children, more than 20,000, is a war crime,” Blumenthal said. “What Vladimir Putin is doing here is not trying to take territory alone. He’s not trying to defeat a nation alone. He’s trying to destroy a people.”
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