Ukraine has collated thousands of reports of its children being deported to Russia and wants their plight addressed at a summit of the Group of 20 major economies, President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff was quoted as saying on Tuesday.

"The Russian Federation continues to commit its crimes in connection with Ukrainian children," Zelensky's office quoted Andriy Yermak as saying at a meeting he chaired of a group of officials responsible for child protection. "The removal of children continues."

The US envoy to the United Nations said in early September that more than 1,800 children were transferred from Russia-controlled areas of Ukraine, to Russia, in July alone. Ukraine wants such deportations investigated as a war crime.

The statement by Zelensky's office said its National Information Bureau showed 10,500 children had been deported or forcibly displaced. Ukraine's minister responsible for reintegrating Russian-occupied territories noted at the meeting that only 96 children had been returned.

Yermak was quoted as saying Ukraine could count on UN help, but he restated Ukraine's lack of confidence in the International Committee of the Red Cross to help.

"Unfortunately, due to the very passive position of international organizations, in particular the ICRC, today we are unable to determine the exact number, how many, and where our children are," he said.

Yermak said discussions about the return of the children should start at the Nov. 15-16 G20 summit in Indonesia, which Zelensky is expected to attend, most likely remotely.

Yermak referred at the meeting to Children of War, a portal where the country collects reports on the impact of the war.

The portal on Tuesday showed 430 children had been killed, 827 wounded, 260 disappeared, 7,343 found, 10,570 deported and 96 returned since Feb. 24, the date Russia invaded its neighbor.

"We really need to draw the world's attention to what is happening, because this is an absolute genocide of Ukrainians, Ukrainian children, our country," he said.

Russia has said in the past that it is offering humanitarian aid to those wishing to flee Ukraine voluntarily.

Earlier on Tuesday, Zelensky told the UN climate summit that a fast-heating world "cannot afford a single gunshot", arguing that Russia's invasion threatened international efforts to tackle global warming.

Speaking by video-link to the COP27 climate talks in Egypt, Zelensky itemised the environmental fallout from the Russian assault on his country -- from compelling countries to increase their use of coal to the disruption of grain supplies, worsening food crises stoked by drought.

"We must stop those who, with their insane and illegal war, are destroying the world's ability to work united for a common goal," he said.

Zelensky added world leaders must tell those who do not take climate change seriously that "they are making a catastrophic mistake."

"They are the ones who start wars of aggression when the planet cannot afford a single gunshot, because it needs global joint actions."

Zelensky said Ukraine was introducing a plan at the conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to assess the impact of military actions on climate and the environment.

The fighting has destroyed at least five million acres (two million hectares) of forest in Ukraine, according to Zelensky, while threatening "a radiation disaster" from the occupied Zaporizhzhia facility, Europe's largest atomic power plant.

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