Vatican
A man stripped entirely naked and climbed onto the altar of the Roman Catholic Church, St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican, in an apparent protest against the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Reuters news agency, quoting a Vatican source, reported that the man, whose identity has not been revealed yet, had an inscription painted on his back calling for the children of Ukraine to be saved.
It is further reported that the man also had self-inflicted cuts on his body from his fingernails, with local media describing him as deranged.
The incident took place on Thursday just before the basilica closed. The Vatican guards have handed the man over to Italian police.
Several Italian media websites ran photos of the incident taken by tourists.
Russia's invasion began with dozens of missile strikes on cities all over Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Russian ground troops moved in quickly and within a few weeks controlled large areas of Ukraine, but continue to face stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces.
Is Russia abducting Ukrainian children?
There have been several media reports that Russia has been abducting Ukrainian children and transporting them to Russian-controlled areas.
According to an estimate by Ukraine's National Information Bureau, around 16,000 Ukrainian children have been taken to Russia or Russian-controlled territory since the start of the war. Some human rights experts even predict the number to be in the hundreds of thousands. However, no incriminating proof so far has been shared.
On March 17 this year, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin, holding him responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of children to Russian-controlled territories.
Moscow, however, claims that the children under its watch were either orphans or had requested evacuation, but Kyiv claims that it’s an attempt to erase Ukraine’s identity by stealing its future.
These children belong to the occupied areas such as Kherson, Kharkiv and Mariupol.
Some reports suggest that the Russian troops abducted the children who had parents and then asked them to sign a release form without being told the children would not be coming back.
It is further claimed that an unknown number of children, including those whose parents were killed by Russian forces, are being forcibly adopted in Russia.
Ukraine-based Regional Center for Human Rights claims that at least 400 Ukrainian orphans have been adopted by Russian families, based on the calculation from Russian government statements in January.
(With inputs from agencies)
Disclaimer: A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While WION takes utmost care to accurately report this developing news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.
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