While most of the Europeans go home to take breaks with their families, up to 20,000 Ukrainian children stay in Russia after being illegally expelled from Ukraine, said Ukraine Foreign Minister in Euronews.
“This is a time when people celebrate Easter with their loved ones in the family. And these children find themselves without their family. Many of them do not even remember their parents because Russia erases their identity,” said Mariana Betsa.
“Ukrainian children are not negotiable”, and all talks and peace negotiations should include “an unconditional return of each child home in Ukraine,” said Betsa.
Ukraine has been able to verify Russia's deportation of 19,546 children to date. These are the children for whom detailed information has been collected – their place of residence in Ukraine and their territorial location in Russia are known.
The real figure is probably much higher.
Yale’s humanitarian research laboratory has placed the number of Ukrainian children expelled closer to 35,000. Moscow said the number could reach 700,000.
The American Institute for the Study of the War Reflection Group (ISW) insists that the real number of deported children is almost impossible to verify: “But the involvement remains the same – Russia has stolen tens, potentially hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children with the explicit of the intention to eradicate their Ukrainian identities and transform the Russians.”
In addition, the ISW flying children was one of the priorities of Russian President Vladimir Putin, referring to the revelations of Ukrainian human rights activists.
They discovered documents from the Kremlin dated February 18, 2022, which established plans to withdraw Ukrainian children from the orphanages in the occupied regions of Luhansk and Donetsk and bring them to Russia under the cover of “humanitarian evacuations”.
These documents revealed that Russia planned to target vulnerable Ukrainian children, especially those without parental care, before the large -scale invasion even started.
“During the next three years, Russia has embarked on a deeply institutionalized project led by the Kremlin to remove Ukrainian children and force them by force into the next generation of Russians.”
Betsa says that 1.6 million Ukrainian children are still in the territories temporarily occupied at that time.
What happens to Ukrainian children expelled now?
Russia deliberately erases the identity of illegally expelled children, according to the vice-minister of Foreign Affairs in Ukraine.
Betsa told Euronews that it was difficult to trace and identify these children because their names and identity documents are modified, especially with regard to young children, who have been forced to adopt in Russia.
With the large -scale invasion of Ukraine and the first intentional expulsion of Ukrainian children, Putin has signed a decree for a simplified procedure for the acquisition of Russian citizenship for “Ukrainian children left without parental care and infoduged persons”.
ADVERTISEMENTThis is equivalent to a legalization of the process of expulsion for Ukrainian children and to force them by force Russian citizenship.
Russia uses children as “an instrument of its aggressive policy towards Ukraine,” said Betsa. “What Russia is doing is that it arms Ukrainian children,” she added.
Yale's humanitarian research laboratory has confirmed that Russia uses at least 43 children's camps across the country to house expelled children, at least 32 of which are explicit “rehabilitation” facilities.
Russia uses these camps to endocate Ukrainian children, “punishing them for their Ukrainian identity and forcibly instilling pro-Russian feeling thanks to training programs carefully organized by the Kremlin and” patriotic military “training courses.”
ADVERTISEMENTBringing back children expelled, kyiv's “red line” for any agreement
The vice-minister of foreign affairs of Ukraine reiterated in the interview with Euronews that there is no single peace without the return of prisoners of war, illegally detainees and without the return of each child.
“These are red lines for Ukraine. Each child should be unconditionally returned home in Ukraine,” said Betsa.
Earlier, Volodymyr Zelenakyy announced that the question was “a major priority for kyiv during the recent ceasefire negotiations with the United States in Saudi Arabia”.
In a statement published after discussions with Ukraine, the United States said that it remains “committed” to return Ukrainian children backing, as well as to exchange prisoners of war and to release civilian detainees.
ADVERTISEMENTHowever, the Trump administration reduced the funding of the humanitarian research laboratory at the University of Yale, which had investigated and detailed the mass deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia.
Under the 2022 contract with the laboratory, the US government was responsible for its database. When the government cut off, the members of the laboratory team lost access to the irreplaceable data they had collected, including the evidence of Russia's war crimes.
The laboratory has shared some of these evidence with the European authorities and the International Criminal Court (ICC), which has published arrest mandates against Putin and the rights of children's rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, to force Ukrainian children.
Responding to the pressures of the members of the Congress, the Trump administration then restored the funding of the laboratory for about six weeks to ensure the appropriate transfer of critical data on children to the appropriate authorities.
ADVERTISEMENTBetsa insists that Ukraine raises the question of expulsion with force with each negotiation, “bilateral, multilateral, within international organizations, the UN, the Council of Europe, everywhere, including in our bilateral talks with the United States”.
“These are red lines for Ukraine. Each child should be returned unconditionally to his home in Ukraine. ”
