Why are Russians taking away Ukrainian children and how to return them?

They were found in the basements of ruined Mariupol, separated from their parents in infiltration camps, taken from sanatoriums and boarding schools. The number of Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russia reaches thousands.

Russia is changing the citizenship of Ukrainian children to allow them to be adopted more quickly. Some are given up for adoption in addition to their living parents or other family members in Ukraine.

There are very few ways to return deported children. Russia and Ukraine have severed diplomatic relations. Moscow does not provide any information about deported children, does not transmit any lists to Ukraine or international organizations.

What is the purpose of Ukrainian children in Russia, how can they return and whether enough is being done for this, says the Ukrainian ombudsman for children's rights Daria Gerasimchuk.

 

How many children did the Russians take?

Ukraine and Russia report different numbers of children deported during the war. Moscow calls it an evacuation. Kyiv by kidnapping. Russian officials say they have evacuated 705,000.

 

"But we perfectly understand that this is not an evacuation, but a forced relocation and deportation to the territory of the Russian Federation, Belarus or to the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. We can neither deny nor confirm the number of 705,000, because it is not supported by any personal data of the children who were allegedly "evacuated ", - comments on the data of the Russian side, Darja Gerasimčuk.

According to her, it is impossible to determine the exact number of children taken away - hostilities continue, there is no access to the occupied territories.

A few months ago, the "Children of the War" portal was created in Ukraine - the only information resource where all information about missing children is collected.

By the end of November, the portal contained data on 12,000 children deported from Ukraine. These data were collected based on the results of appeals to the State Information Bureau.

"These appeals are checked by all competent services and agencies. And so we have a concrete list of the names of those children who need to be found and returned home, all kidnapped by Russia. And these numbers are increasing every day," notes the ombudsman for children's rights.

In fact, there may be tens of thousands of kidnapped children, notes Gerasimčuk.

 

Where were the children taken?

 

There are no specific directions and regions in Russia where children from Ukraine are taken.

Some children are placed in health institutions, some - in children's institutions.

"They take them as far as possible across the territory of the Russian Federation. They send them as far as possible, hide them in remote regions. The Russians do this to complicate the process of finding them and returning them," the children's ombudsman notes.

 

When leaving the occupied territories, the ombudsman says, the Russians often separated children from their relatives. This happened in the so-called filtration camps, which were organized in the spring in the vicinity of occupied Mariupol, Kherson and other cities. There, people were searched, interrogated, sometimes beaten or imprisoned. Thousands of people did not pass the filter. Their fates are unknown.

"The child left with his grandfather or grandmother, or with his mother. The relatives were detained, and the children were deported to Russia. Such cases are not isolated," says Gerasimchuk.

The Ukrainian authorities failed to organize the evacuation of boarding houses and sanatoriums in time. Dozens of such institutions came under fire and then under occupation. The Russians also take the children away from there.

Thus, 15 children were taken from the Mariupolj sanatorium, where they were being treated, when the war began. These were children without parents. According to Gerasimčuk, 13 were returned.

 

Pupils of the Oleshkiv orphanage in the Kherson region were taken to Crimea. The children were sent to a psychiatric hospital in Simferopol.

According to Daria Gerasimčuk, Russians often take only healthy children from boarding schools.

"Sometimes very seriously ill children are placed in institutions, with serious illnesses, it is difficult to transport them. So the Russians kidnapped only those they could take," notes the children's ombudsman.

Currently, it is not known how many of the 12,000 deported orphans have parents or other relatives.

How do the children return?

 

In May, Russia simplified the process of obtaining citizenship for Ukrainian orphans. Information is known about more than 100 Ukrainian children who were placed in foster families.

 

Governor of Moscow Region Andriy Vorobyov spoke about nine children from a boarding school in Donetsk, who were placed with a Russian family in Ljuberac. The oldest of the children is 15 years old, and the youngest is three years old. They became citizens of the Russian Federation.

The Russian President's Commissioner for Children's Rights Marija Lvova-Belova publicly announced the adoption of the boy Filip from Mariupol. Ukrainian authorities call such "adoption" kidnapping. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is initiating criminal proceedings against her.

It is extremely difficult to return children taken to Russia. Ukraine broke off diplomatic relations with the Russian side. Volunteers and public organizations help in the return of children.

International organizations - the UN and the Red Cross - are involved in the negotiation process. However, there are many questions regarding the latter. According to human rights defenders, during the nine months of war, international organizations should have been more involved in this process. Especially when they have access to Russian territory and can request at least a list of deportees from the Russian side.

In November, a meeting of the Council for the Protection and Safety of Children was held in which UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, ambassadors of the G20 countries, ombudsmen for children and representatives of various UN structures participated.

"We have worked out certain steps, proposals, for which we appeal to the international community, to all countries, in order to get support and return the children as soon as possible", says Gerasimchuk about this meeting "We must use any mechanisms, any possibilities, so that Ukrainian children return as soon as possible".

Ukraine calls on the international community to increase pressure on Russia, to demand from the Kremlin the repeal of the law on simplified procedures for adoption and obtaining citizenship for Ukrainian children.

 

"We call on the world community to unite and do everything possible. Because today these are Ukrainian children, and tomorrow they can be children of any nation. We must develop mechanisms, we must make special resolutions," notes the ombudsman.

 

In June, it was possible to return 44 children who were illegally taken to Russia. By the end of November, 119 had already been returned.

 

"Maybe it seems like it's very little. But it saves lives and it's important. And in each individual case, it's hard work, it's, in fact, a special mini-special operation for return," says Darja Gerasimčuk.

 

She does not say how it was possible to take the children out of Russia: "It will make it impossible to use this mechanism in the future."

"Why are the Russians taking away children? They are kidnapping them in order to commit genocide against the Ukrainian people through Ukrainian children," says Gerasimchuk. "They want to do everything to separate children from their biological families, Russify these children, hide these children, transfer them to another ethnic group. We call on the international community to recognize this as genocide and we want to collect as many facts as possible to document everything."