The head of the Ukrainian NGO Eastern Group of Human Rights Defenders, Vera Yastrebova, said that the Russian occupiers are behaving like fascists. Children are kidnapped from Ukraine, but after prior segregation. “They take away the healthy ones and those that stand out in science,” Jastrebowa alarmed.
Over the past two weeks, in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, the invaders have intensified the “filtration” of children in schools and kindergartens. The first stage of segregation is the mandatory medical examination of minors. Then, the children’s health data is used to deport young Ukrainians. The invaders deliberately choose people they consider particularly useful in the context of future Russification – informed Yastrebova, quoted by the UNIAN agency.
The human rights defender said that children suffering from various diseases are left in Ukraine, while healthy ones go to Russia. If the person to be deported has reached the age of 14, he receives a Russian passport.
“In this way, Russia is trying to deprive Ukraine of Ukrainians by forcing them to take Russian citizenship. There are cases where parents refuse to change their children’s documents, but then (such persons) are summoned for questioning. E.g. a resident of Soledar (in the Donbass) was almost tormented by constant interrogations. She was also threatened to take her child away.”
Jastrebowa reported.
Unverifiable number
The Ukrainian authorities explained that they had no way of verifying the number of deported children given by the Russians (who even say hundreds of thousands). The data published by the Ukrainian side on the childrenofwar.gov.ua website concern cases verified and confirmed by it, but – as the Ukrainians point out – they are not complete.
Currently, the government’s Children of War website reports 19,392 cases of deportation and repatriation of 365 children. According to these figures, at least 482 children were killed and 979 injured as a result of Russian aggression. 401 children were declared missing by the police.
On March 17, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The judges found that there are real grounds to believe that Putin is responsible for war crimes involving the unlawful deportation of children from occupied Ukraine to Russia. At the same time, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for the Russian ombudsman for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, accused of the same crimes as Putin.
The Eastern Group of Human Rights Defenders is a Ukrainian non-governmental organization founded in 2014 by attorney Pavlo Łysianski. The group was formed during the previous war in Donbass in the east of the country. Its main task is to provide legal and educational assistance in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, protect the rights of refugees, and supporting efforts to evacuate civilians from conflict zones.
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