More than 1.6M Ukrainians forcibly taken to Russia - Zelensky

Russia has forcibly deported more than 1.6 million Ukrainians, scattering them across its territory and seizing many of their documents.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said this in his address to participants in a session of the General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), which is taking place in Lima, Ukrinform reports, citing the press service of the head of state.

"More than 1.6 million Ukrainians were forcibly deported to Russia. They are dispersed across the territory of this state, scattered throughout remote Russian regions. Many of them had their documents taken away, and many of them passed through terrible Russian filtration camps, where they were abused and intimidated. These are people. But for Russia, it is also a resource," Zelensky said.

He said that Russia had sent its army to Ukraine "to turn us into their colony - as it was, unfortunately, before - in the time of empires."

Zelensky said that millions of Ukrainians had stood up to defend freedom and their country and would definitely not allow Russia to bring back that old unfair time.

"We have no doubt that we will win this war and will be able to protect the independence of Ukraine. Daily victories at the front and dozens of liberated cities and villages of Ukraine prove it," he said.

Zelensky said that |there is only one question for us right now – how many of our people Russia will manage to kill before it admits its defeat" and "how much more will Russia manage to steal from Ukraine – grain; resources; industrial enterprises, which the occupiers simply disassemble and take out to Russia; as well as people."

"We are doing everything to free our land as soon as possible, to save all our people from this invasion as fast as we can. We are doing everything to put an end to the long list of Ukrainian victims that Russia is creating," Zelensky added.

On February 24, Russia began a new stage of the war it launched in 2014 against Ukraine - a full-scale invasion.