"We do not know where he is and with whom he lives, we fear that he is among the thousands of children taken by Putin to Russia." The anguish is palpable in the appeal that Roman's grandparents and father, a 6-year-old Veronese boy, have spread through local newspapers.

The little boy, son of a man from Verona and his ex-wife Ukrainian wife, had been brought by the woman to Donbass shortly after birth and never brought back to Verona. According to his grandparents, the child's mother worked for the Ukrainian secret service and then switched to the pro-Russian side.

"Despite the interest of the Italian consul in Ukraine and the various attempts made by us also with the help of local politicians - they reported - the mother's position has further hardened, totally eliminating contacts for about a year - report relatives. - We still don't know where Roman is and who he lives with. We appeal to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. We receive fragmentary news from people who risk their lives by providing us with this information. Until a year ago we made some video calls with the little one, who does not speak Italian by choice of the mother, then not even that, and the phone numbers are blocked".

The international arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, signed on Friday by judges at the Hague Criminal Court, stemmed from the deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children since the beginning of the conflict.