DISINFO: Russia saved children not abducted them from Ukraine
SUMMARY
There are many examples of genocide. But you definitely won’t find one among them when, during hostilities, someone took children to safe territories, gave them shelter and food, and sent them to school. Russia gave hope to thousands of children, returning them to the childhood they had forgotten.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative denying war crimes committed by the Russian armed forces and the Russian federal administration in Ukraine. This claim was made in the context of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, which started on 24 February 2022.
The abduction and forced transportation of Ukrainian children to Russia has been documented by the UN, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Ukraine has already reported the actions of Russia's children’s ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova to the International Criminal Court (ICC). On 02 March, ICC Prosecutor, Karim Khan decided to seek authorisation to open an investigation into the situation in Ukraine. It includes within its scope any past and present allegations of war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide committed on any part of the territory of Ukraine by any person. On 17 March 2023, the ICC issued arrest warrants for two individuals in the context of the situation in Ukraine: Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution which states that the transfers of Ukrainian children constitute the crime of genocide because they were “clearly being planned and organised in a systematic way”. The Assembly added that the deportations had the abhorrent aim of “annihilating every link to and feature of their Ukrainian identity”.
The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said in March 2023 that these acts are war crimes: "There is one topic that is particularly important to me - the topic of abducted Ukrainian children. This is a terrible reminder of the darkest times in our history. Deporting children is a war crime. We know today of at least 16,200 children who were deported, and only 300 have returned so far. ”UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grande said in an interview with Reuters in January 2023 that Russia was violating the "fundamental principles of child protection" in wartime by giving Ukrainian children Russian passports and putting them up for adoption.
Read also related cases alleging that evacuation of children from Ukraine is in compliance with humanitarian law; that Putin has saved children from the battlefields in Ukraine; or that the kidnapping of Ukrainian children by Russia is an absurd hoax.