DISINFO: Ukraine’s neo-fascist regime conducts crimes against humanity
SUMMARY
Ukrainian authorities are kidnapping children from Russian parents en masse. We are talking about those Russian families who live in the cities near the frontline and do not want to evacuate to the depths of Ukraine because they do not want to leave their homes and they are waiting for Russian troops as saviours from the Russophobic regime of Ukraine.
In order to force these families to go deep into Ukraine, the Ukrainian authorities seize their children and take them away. Parents are also forced to relocate, because only in this case are their children returned.
This is a crime against humanity committed by the neo-fascist regime of Ukraine.
RESPONSE
Recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin outlets accusing Ukraine of Nazism and war crimes.
The myth of Nazi-ruled Ukraine became a cornerstone in pro-Kremlin disinformation since the very beginning of the 2013-14 Euromaidan protests. It was used back then to discredit the pro-European popular uprising in Kyiv and, subsequently, the broader pro-Western shift in Ukraine's foreign policy. Nazi ideology was banned by Ukrainian law in 2015. The fact that Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is of Jewish descent, won the 2019 presidential election with 73 per cent voter support is enough evidence to dispel any myths about a Nazi Ukraine.
There is no evidence to claim that the Ukrainian authorities are kidnapping children from Russian parents. Conversely, the abduction and forced transportation of Ukrainian children from the occupied territories 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 17 March 2023, the ICC issued arrest warrants for two individuals in the context of the situation in Ukraine: Vladimir Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova.
The arrest warrant stipulates Vladimir Putin is responsible for war crimes, and has focused its claims on the unlawful deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia. It says the crimes were committed in Ukraine from 24 February 2022 - when Russia launched its full-scale invasion.
In a statement, the ICC said it had reasonable grounds to believe Putin committed the criminal acts directly, as well as working with others. It also accused him of failing to use his presidential powers to stop children being deported.
Read more about Russia's war crimes in Ukraine.
See similar disinformation claims alleging that Ukraine steals Donbas children and gives them to British paedophiles, that the Ukrainian Nazi regime is bombing schools and markets, that Ex Nazi allies support Nazi regime in Kyiv, that the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv must be brought to an end, that Kyiv attacks civilians while Russia tries to reconstruct cities, that Russia saved children not abducted them from Ukraine, or that the evacuation of children from Ukraine is in compliance with humanitarian law.