What is the fate of the kidnapped Ukrainian children?
The issue of children's return is no less painful than the release of Ukrainian prisoners.
During the appearance of Russian President Vladimir Putnin at a big concert at Luzhniki Stadium, among other things, he appeared on stage surrounded by Ukrainian children who thanked him for "rescuing". Among the children, the journalists also met the sisters, whose mother was killed during the shelling of Mariupol.
How many children were kidnapped?
On the Luzhniki stage, Putin was presented as a "savior" - translated into a civilized language - the kidnapper of 367 Mariupol children. And this is just one example of the tragic fate of the new generation that ended up in the occupation.
The United Nations has proven beyond doubt that the occupiers stole thousands of Ukrainian children and took them to the Russian Federation. But what number is it?
Before the liberation of the territory, it is impossible to find out the exact number of abducted minors. Some calculations can be made relatively precisely in the liberated Kyiv, Sumy, Chernihiv and Kharkiv regions. But we only have fragmentary information from the occupied territories. Specifically, about the relocation of 1,200 children from the Kherson region to Crimea. Certain procedures can be speculated on the basis of circumstantial evidence. So the Crimean officials somehow said that they expect another 5,000 Ukrainian children.
While the Russian authorities are trying to present the kidnapping as a salvation, average Russians are offering Ukrainian children as shields on social media.
We hope that the public confession of the crime by the Russian authorities will be taken into account as evidence during the upcoming Tribunal.
The mass abduction is officially managed by the Commissioner of the Office of the President of the Russian Federation for Children's Rights, Marija Lviv-Belova, who
was nicknamed "Bloody Mary" for her criminal activities. In particular, he publicly complains about the kidnapped children of Mariupol, who called Putin as is customary in Ukraine, sang the national anthem and shouted "Glory to Ukraine". For that, she promised them that she would "re-educate" them.
At the end of 2022, the permanent representative of Ukraine to the United Nations, Sergiy Kislitsia, at a meeting of the UN Security Council, announced the figure on the proven number of Ukrainian children deported to Russia or the occupied territories. There were 12,340 precisely identified minors.
In January of this year, according to the National Information Bureau of Ukraine, the possible number of confirmed kidnappings rose to 16,207.
Back in the summer of last year, Russian propagandists proudly announced that they had taken 448,000 small citizens out of Ukraine.
Summarizing the number of children who died as a result of the Russian occupation, the former envoy of the President of Ukraine for children's rights, Mykola Kuleb, noted that around 1.5 million Ukrainian children were under occupation and deported.
According to Russian registration data for the year, there are 728,000 displaced Ukrainian children. (We are talking about all the children, including those who arrived with their parents).
Liability for kidnapping
The issue of children's return is no less painful than the release of Ukrainian prisoners.
At this stage, only 307 children were returned. The number is small, but such an opportunity in wartime conditions is generally a miracle. We will be able to really deal with the return of Ukrainian children only after victory.
The cases of rescuing children make it possible to find out how the racists committed this war crime.
As reported by Daria Gerasimčuk, Commissioner for Children's Rights and Child Rehabilitation, there are five scenarios of mass abduction:
1. The parents were killed - the orphans were taken away.
2. They are separated from their parents during filtering.
3. They were taken away from their families.
4. They take orphans and children out of boarding schools.
5. They are sent to the so-called recovery and rest.
What the aggressor country did and is doing to Ukrainian children is legally recognized as genocide. But how to implement child protection in the legislative area in practice?
The international community has the experience of a legal response to the inhumane actions of aggressors — the Nuremberg process. But at this stage there is no mechanism, it is necessary to create an international tribunal.
The idea of a special court to punish crimes of aggression against Ukraine, which is metaphorically called The Hague, has been circulating in international organizations for some time, at the request of Ukraine.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (representing 46 countries) unanimously adopted a resolution on the creation of a special tribunal for the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine.
The PSSE decision is not a document that will have a direct effect in European countries, but it is systemically important for further legal implementation.
Among the jurisdictions of such a court is genocide, including child abduction.
It will be possible to talk about the special tribunal in more detail after the extraordinary summit of the Council of Europe, scheduled for 16-17 May in Reykjavik.
As for Ukrainian legislation, everything is clear: upon return, every child must receive the status and support of a person affected by human trafficking. At the same time, it is necessary to develop a mechanism according to which the aggressor state should compensate the moral damage caused to deported minors.
At this stage, it is too early to talk about the dates of return of Ukrainian children to their homeland, but it is time to unite the international community to solve this issue.