US calls for immediate halt to Russian deportations in Ukraine

Up to 1.6 million Ukrainians forcibly deported, Secretary of State Antony Blinken says

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  An elderly couple stands near a damaged school in the city of Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine. EPA

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  At least one person was killed after shelling hit the school, the Ukrainian State Emergency Service said. EPA

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  A woman walks past a destroyed market near a railway station in Donetsk. Reuters

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  Municipal workers clean a street in Donetsk. Reuters

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  A man passes destroyed buildings in the Ukrainian town of Siversk. AFP

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  A destroyed school in Siversk. AFP

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  A Ukrainian serviceman passes by destroyed buildings in Siversk. AFP

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  A woman's home is repaired by volunteers after being destroyed by shelling in the village of Zalissya. AFP

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  People fill up water canisters in Mykolaiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. AFP

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  Grain fields burn on the outskirts of Kurakhove, Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. AP Photo

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  The mother of Ukrainian serviceman Abdulkarim Gulamov, who was killed in a fight against Russian troops in Kherson, attends his funeral in Kyiv. Reuters

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  People carry pictures of Mr Gulamov at the funeral. Reuters

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  Ukrainian service members fire a shell from a M777 Howitzer in Kharkiv. Reuters

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  A man walks in front of a damaged school after a missile strike hit the city of Kramatorsk. EPA

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  A cyclist rides past burnt cars after a Russian rocket strike in Kharkiv. AFP

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  Rescuers and servicemen work at a school building damaged by a Russian military strike in Kramatorsk. Reuters

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  Sasha, 12, a refugee from Ukraine at the humanitarian aid centre set up at the Global Expo exhibition hall in Warsaw, Poland. AFP

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  Maksym and Andrii, 11-year-old boys, play with plastic guns at a self-made checkpoint along a motorway in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine. AP

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  A Ukrainian soldier nicknamed 'Oakland' guards his position at the front line in the Kharkiv region. AP

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  Ukrainians look at destroyed Russian military equipment at an outdoor exhibition near the Church of the Three Saints in Kyiv. AFP

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  A member of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) militia sits in a makeshift bunker near Avdiivka, in the Donbas region of Ukraine. EPA

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  A DPR militia member monitors a section of the road near Avdiivka. EPA

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  Ukrainians pass a heavily damaged shopping mall in the city of Kherson. AFP

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  The rubble of a house in Moshchun village, about 20 kilometres outside Kyiv. EPA

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  A resident helps a firefighter put out a fire after an air strike in the town of Bakhmut, in the breakaway enclave of Donetsk. AFP

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  A woman surveys the devastation caused by an air strike in Bakhmut. AFP

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  Part of a projectile fire by a rocket launcher lies embedded in a wheat field in Ukraine's Kharkiv region. AFP

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  Members of the public look at a Ukrainian tank destroyed in a Russian attack, in Hostomel, north-west of Kyiv. EPA

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  Burnt out cars destroyed in Russian attacks are piled up in Hostomel. EPA

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  Jill Biden, US first lady, left, and US President Joe Biden welcome the first lady of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska, to the White House. EPA

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  Miami District Two commissioner Ken Russell, left, and Miami police chief Manuel Morales with weapons collected in the Guns 4 Ukraine initiative, at Miami City Hall in Florida. Guns bought back by Miami will be delivered to sister city Irpin, near Kyiv. EPA

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  A Ukrainian serviceman stands next to a Grad BM-21 multiple rocket launcher at the front line in Donbas, eastern Ukraine. AFP

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  A woman walks her dog in front of a block of flats hit by shelling in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine. EPA

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  A Kramatorsk resident peers out of a window lined with tape to reduce the impact of shattering glass. EPA

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  The damaged windows of an apartment, after shells hit a residential area in Kramatorsk. EPA

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  Rescuers working on a residential building partially destroyed by missile strike in Bashtanka, Mykolaiv as the Russian war in Ukraine continues. AFP

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  An Ukrainian infantry fighting vehicle lies by the roadside, having been destroyed by Russian forces in Ukraine. AFP

The US has called on Russia to immediately release Ukrainians it has forced out of their home country and allow the presence of outside observers, citing reports Moscow was putting Ukrainian children up for adoption and "disappearing" thousands of others.

"The unlawful transfer and deportation of protected persons is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians and is a war crime," US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement before a conference scheduled on Thursday to address "accountability" in the conflict.

Mr Blinken said reports indicated Moscow was "deliberately separating Ukrainian children from their parents and abducting others from orphanages before putting them up for adoption inside Russia" while also "detaining or disappearing thousands of Ukrainian civilians who do not pass 'filtration'".

Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of deporting hundreds of thousands of people from Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine and forcing them into so-called filtration camps.

The Russian embassy in the US said the comments made by Washington were an attempt to stoke "Russophobia".

"Washington's attempt to vilify the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is apparently connected with dissatisfaction with the success of a special military operation," Russia's embassy said in a Facebook post.

The embassy also said that the humanitarian corridors were also operational in the region and added that "statements about the forcible confiscation of Ukrainian passports are poor-quality western disinformation".

The 1949 Geneva Conventions, which define international legal standards for humanitarian treatment in conflict, prohibit mass forcible transfers of civilians to the territory of the occupying power, classifying it as a war crime.

"Estimates from a variety of sources, including the Russian government, indicate that Russian authorities have interrogated, detained and forcibly deported between 900,000 and 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, including 260,000 children, from their homes to Russia – often to isolated regions in the Far East," Mr Blinken said.

Moscow, which invaded Ukraine on February 24, has denied intentionally attacking or displacing civilians.