The New Voice of Ukraine
Thu, December 28, 2023
Children
Nearly 10,000 Ukrainian children were abducted to Russia from Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories for so-called “health improvement” in the fall of 2023 alone, the National Resistance Center (NRC) reported.
Children are subjected to propaganda in these camps and Russian authorities often refuse to return them to their legal guardians.
Russians had set a target to transport 2,500 children from each occupied region, the NRC said.
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Doctors brought in from Russia issue medical certificates for such “health improvement.”
A notable incident involved the death of a child on the Tyumen-Adler train, who was returning from one such “health improvement” program, reported Luhansk regional governor Artem Lysohor on Dec. 21.
Read also: Over 380 children abducted by Russia have now been returned, says deputy PM
All children were transported under terrible conditions and were vaccinated with a Russian flu vaccine, leading to the hospitalization of over 100 children, the NRC said.
The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants on March 17 for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and Russian “Children’s Rights” Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for their involvement in the unlawful transportation of children from Ukraine to Russia.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution on April 27 to recognize the forced transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia as genocide.
As of Sept. 27, at least 19,546 children have been deported or forcibly displaced by Russia, reported the Ukrainian state platform Children of War.
According to the European Parliament, the number of Ukrainian children illegally taken to Russia could be as many as 300,000. MEPs believe that Russians began taking Ukrainian children back in 2014, after the occupation of Crimea and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts.
Earlier, Lvova-Belova said that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the occupation forces had illegally transferred more than 700,000 Ukrainian children to Russian territory.
More Ukrainian children from Ukraine's Russia-held regions arrive in Belarus despite global outrage
YURAS KARMANAU
Thu, December 28, 2023
FILE - Belarus' President Alexander Lukashenko, right, and Russian President Vladimir Putin greet each other prior to a session of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) in Minsk, Belarus, on Nov. 23, 2023. The International Red Cross on Friday Dec. 1, 2023 suspended the Belarusian chapter after its head stirred international outrage for boasting that it was actively ferrying Ukrainian children from Russian-controlled areas to Belarus. (Valery Sharifulin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)More
TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Belarus' authoritarian president on Thursday attended a government-organized meeting with children brought from Russia-controlled areas of Ukraine, openly defying an international outrage over his country's involvement in Moscow's deportation of Ukrainian children.
Speaking at the event marking the arrival of a new group of Ukrainian children ahead of the New Year holiday, President Alexander Lukashenko vowed to “embrace these children, bring them to our home, keep them warm and make their childhood happier."
Belarusian officials did not say how many Ukrainian children were brought into the country.
A recent study by Yale University has found that more than 2,400 Ukrainian children aged 6-17 have been brought to Belarus from four Ukrainian regions that have been partially occupied by Russian forces. The Belarusian opposition has urged the International Criminal Court to hold Lukashenko and his officials accountable for their involvement in the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children.
Pavel Latushka, a former Belarusian culture minister turned opposition activist who has presented the ICC with evidence of Lukashenko's alleged involvement in the unlawful deportation of the children, said the arrival of a new group from Russia-occupied territories “underlines the need for the ICC to investigate those crimes.”
“Lukashenko, his family members and associates together with the Kremlin have organized a system of transfer of Ukrainian children, including orphans, from the occupied territories to Belarus, and this channel is still working,” Latushka told The Associated Press.
In March, the ICC issued arrest warrants for both Russian President Vladimir Putin and his children's rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of the war crimes of unlawful deportation of children and unlawful transfer of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia. Moscow has rejected the allegations.
Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said in televised remarks Thursday that the transfer of thousands of Ukrainian children to Belarus helped Moscow cover up the information about the unlawful deportation of children.
Earlier this month, the International Red Cross suspended the organization's Belarusian chapter after its chief, Dzmitry Shautsou, stirred international outrage for boasting that it was actively ferrying Ukrainian children from Russian-controlled areas to Belarus.
Shautsou called the move “absolutely politicized," claiming that Ukrainian children who visited Belarus for “health improvement” returned home safely.
Belarus has been Moscow’s closest ally since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, when Lukashenko allowed the Kremlin to use his country's territory to invade Ukraine. Russia has also deployed some of its tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus.
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