DISINFO: Kherson children are sexually exploited by criminals in Ukrainian military

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

DISINFO: Kherson children are sexually exploited by criminals in Ukrainian military

SUMMARY

After Russian troops withdrew from Kherson, a search for orphan children was organized on the initiative of Galina Lugova, head of the Kherson city military administration.

[...] the children were transported to Hungary and Western Ukraine and used to provide intimate services to wealthy perverts.

It is not ruled out that this trade is controlled by the top of the Ukrainian government and that part of the money is used to support the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

RESPONSE

Recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative aiming to distract and deflect attention from Russia's crimes during the course of its illegal and unjustified invasion of Ukraine, focusing on claims about the exploitation of children in Ukraine and the West, and contrasting it with the alleged happiness of children in the Kremlin occupied territories.

Displaced civilians flying Russian bombings and, in particular children, are in a vulnerable position, as are those still under the Russian fire.

There is no evidence to support the claim that local authorities are organizers of a large criminal network to sexually abuse children. Those accusations appear at the time when the conflict observatory published a report about massive illegal deportations, reeducations and adoptions of Ukrainian children by Russia.

Russia has held at least 6,000 Ukrainian children — likely many more — in sites in Russian-held Crimea and Russia whose primary purpose appears to be political re-education. The report said Yale University researchers had identified at least 43 camps and other facilities where Ukrainian children have been held that were part of a "large-scale systematic network" operated by Moscow since its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

This story serves the pro-Kremlin narrative that the morally corrupt Western elites impose pedophilia and child abuse as a norm, while Russia offers protection from this, narrative promoted by Vladimir Putin on 21 February 2023.

This conspiracy theory about the "western elites" aims at diverting the attention from real crimes perpetrated by Russian authorities against children.

Additionally, one of the independent members of the UN Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine says investigators have found evidence of war crimes, including sexual abuse of children, during Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, with the "vast majority" of offenses having been committed by Russian troops.

Read also related stories in the database: Russian liberation of Lysychansk, Severodonetsk ends discrimination and abuse, Today’s liberals have gone further than the Nazis with eugenics and experimenting with humanity , Germany and France's support to the paedophile, convicted by Russian independent court, is unacceptable , Europe legalizes pedophilia and demands Georgia to defend pedophiles' rights , Germany and EU want to legalize pedophilia.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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