Radosław Sikorski made the comparison during a scathing attack on Russia at a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York that got wide publicity on social media.
Citing independent reports, he accused Russia of kidnapping and brainwashing Ukrainian children, with the aim to “strip [kidnapped Ukrainian children] of memories and of their national identity.”
He went on to compare Russia’s actions to what happened in Potulice, a Nazi filtration camp in occupied Poland that was used during the Second World War to imprison thousands of children from Poland and the Soviet Union before being transferred west to be Germanized.
“How does what you are doing to Ukrainian kidnapped children differ from what German Nazis did to your children and ours?” Sikorski asked the Russian delegation.
“This is Russia's shame that will not be forgiven or forgotten,” he said.
According to Ukrainian authorities, over 20,000 Ukrainian children have been transferred to Russia without the consent of the children’s parents or guardians since the start of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. One of the war crimes he is accused of is the unlawful transfer of a population from an occupied area.
