A display of 20,000 teddy bears appeared on the National Mall in Washington, DC, on Thursday to represent Ukrainian children that 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.”
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.”