In the context of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin is deporting Ukrainian children en masse from the temporarily occupied territories (TOT) of Ukraine. They are taken to Crimea, Russia, Belarus and even South Ossetia, supposedly for health improvement or for rest in camps.
Russia is using sophisticated scenarios to move Ukrainian children to its territory, an advisor to the President of Ukraine for Children’s Rights and Children’s Rehabilitation, Daria Herasymchuk said. One of them is fabricated medical diagnosis. In addition, Russian kidnappers do not hesitate to use other methods. They:
- kill parents and then take children to their territory;
- children are removed directly from their biological family;
- separate children from their families during so-called filtration measures; special institutions were moved to the Russian Federation where Ukrainian children lived;
- create abnormal living conditions for children in the occupied territories, and then propose parents to send their children, allegedly voluntarily, for so-called health improvement or rest, from which they are not returned home.
Since February 24, 2022, the Russians have forcibly removed about 20 thousand Ukrainian children. We can add here at least another hundred children from the occupied Ukrainian Crimea, deported and illegally adopted by Russian citizens under the Train of Hope program during 2014-2022. These are only official statistics that reflect recorded cases of the deportation, and real data can be much higher. At the moment, Ukraine has managed to return only 387 children out of the mentioned twenty thousand… But what about the rest? What awaits them?
Ukrainian children often have their last names changed, they are sent to foster families, they are resettled in remote, economically backward regions of the Russian Federation, and everything is done to make it impossible for them to return home. Russia is seeking to improve its demographic situation through the forced removal of Ukrainian children. As a rule, children are taken to those regions of the Russian Federation where the Slavic population is dying out or to backward regions — Chechnya, Chuvashia, Siberia, the Far East. Ukrainian children in the Russian Federation are subjected to propaganda brainwashing, they are taught to hate Ukraine, and are instilled with false values of the “Russkiy mir.” They are taken not only to Russia, but also to Belarus, where at least 4 so-called “health camps” have been created.
The Kremlin is carrying out its “dirty” work among the children deported to Russia and younger generation in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Russia has established a huge system of “militarization” of stolen Ukrainian children and is preparing them for war, including for participation in further aggression against Ukraine. The Kremlin’s “educators” are actively working with Ukrainian children from the age of 4-5, erasing their national identification with Russian propaganda. This happens in kindergartens and schools and in out-of-school education, as well. Russians create a reality for children where they must die “for Russia.” Much money are allocated for special “patriotic” programs, particularly in Crimea. Even the church is involved in the process of “militarization” of children, where unique religious events are held under the control of the occupation authorities (there are examples of the “blessing” of a rocket, which is then used against Ukraine, and this happens in the presence of children).
Let us recall that the deportation of Ukrainian children was the reason for an arrest warrant for the Commissioner of the President of the Russian Federation for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, and Vladimir Putin himself, issued by the International Criminal Court in The Hague on March 17, 2023.
The terrorist state should receive additional sanctions and find itself in complete international isolation. This will be a logical step in response to the kidnapping it has legalized. Every Ukrainian child must be returned home, and Russia must answer for every case of illegal deportation of people, for crimes against Ukraine.