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Day 69:00 a.mMeet Ukranian trying to stop the alleged Russian abduction of Ukrainian children
Earlier this month the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin. Next to her name is another person: Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights.
Both men are accused of war crimes “illegal deportation of the population (children) and illegal transfer” children from Ukraine to Russia.
“The international community now knows what is at stake in this conflict, and the stake is the children of Ukraine,” said Nathaniel Raymond, of the Yale Public Health Humanitarian Research Lab.
This is really about trying to destroy the Ukrainian identity as the main goal of the program on an industrial scale– Nathaniel Raymond
“Russia is not secretive about what it does. In fact, it is mainly done for the domestic political audience in Russia.”
Oleksandra Matviichuk, from the Center for Civil Liberties in Kyiv, which works to track deported children, and is the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, considers that forced deportation is the main war tactic in Russia’s overall strategy.
“They use children as tools: how to justify their actions [the] Russian army in Ukraine,” Matviichuk said Day 6 host Brent Bambury.
“The strategy is to liquidate Ukrainians as a nation.”
According to the public prosecutor of Ukraine in March, the number of children removed is at least 16,000.
A Kremlin spokesman has called for warrants against Putin and Lvova-Belova “wow,” while adding that Russia does not recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction over the matter.
The purpose of the Russian ‘integration camp’
But Raymond and his team of researchers say the deportations are systemic and found network of at least 43 sites where Ukrainian children were relocated, with dozens of other sites being reviewed, stretching “from the Black Sea to the Pacific Ocean over 3,500 miles.”
“This is really about trying to destroy the Ukrainian identity as the main goal of the program on an industrial scale,” he said.
According to Raymond, Russia’s goals included “Russification” in at least 32 camps; means that children are being indoctrinated for pro-Russian views.
They also want to rename the invasion a humanitarian mission to save children in Russia, hoping to gain leverage in a future prisoner exchange, or in negotiations to end the conflict, he said.
“We know that Russian officials are public and proud [said] that we teach Ukrainian children, that Putin is a great leader, that Russia is their own country and they are Russians,” Matviichuk said.
Depending on the site, these children may have clear guardianship in Ukraine, or they may be considered orphans by Russia. There are cases where children do not have clear guardianship, according to Russian officials and some children who have been in Russian institutions before the conflict.
Seventeen Ukrainian children sent to a camp in Crimea by Russian officials were reunited with their families in Kyiv today. They are among the thousands transferred to Russia or its occupied territories.
Raymond’s research found parents who agreed to temporarily relocate their children, but only to keep them out of danger.
“It causes a lot of problems for parents to come to Russian territory and bring them back,” Matviichuk said.
Two sites, one a mental hospital, were linked to the deportation of orphans, according to Raymond’s report. Some children have been placed with their families.
The same Yale Humanities Research Lab report positions Lvova-Belova as a leader in the “integration camp” strategy and involved in the forced adoption of Ukrainian children.
Lvova-Belova has publicly endorsed the adoption of Ukrainian children on her own social media. She appeared in a video with Ukrainian children and in a recent appearance with Putin claimed to have adopted a child from the Russian-occupied city of Mariupol.
Raymond said that later in the appearance, Lvova-Belova and Putin discussed developing a military training camp in Chechnya with 2,000 Ukrainian and Russian boys aged 14 to 17. The team studied the site and claimed that its findings showed the boys were being trained in firearms and military vehicle operations.
Based on Raymond’s evidence, Lvova-Belova also oversaw the “military education of future fighters.”
The humanitarian threshold for child transfer is not met
Russia’s United Nations Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said this week that the situation was overblown and that the children were being moved “only because we want to save them from the dangers that military activity can bring.”
But Matviichuk said Russia cannot remove civilians from danger or respect international law.
“We know of a large-scale invasion within a year if Russia refuses to give permission [the] The International Committee of the Red Cross to open humanitarian corridors,” he said.
“[They’re] even intentionally destroying evacuation corridors when people are trying to escape from the danger zone.”
Raymond said he agreed that Russia was not following the Geneva Convention on how children separated from their parents should be handled.
He said Russia had not registered the children and had not transferred them to neutral third-party countries. Raymond added that international monitors are not allowed access to children and children are not allowed to call national authorities in Ukraine.
Parents take risks to find their children
Some ffoundation used to reunite children with their parents. And some parents, like Yevhen Mezhevyi who was detained during the conflict, reportedly succeeded in taking his children from inside Russia.
“I really don’t know how … this father, after his terrible detention, found the energy and resources … to manage, to succeed, to take his children back,” Matviichuk said.
“That’s my bet [it’s] the love of parents. That’s only one explanation.”
Raymond said military-age men risk detention entering Russia and are more likely to be mothers or grandmothers who travel long distances to try to pick up children.
The trip was also financially prohibitive for many families, and groups organized reunification on a “catch as catch” basis.
Matviichuk believes international groups like the International Committee of the Red Cross, UNICEF and the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights should be proactive in organizing reunification.
“They need to address this issue and try to do something to stop this practice.”
Raymond believes that the ICC guarantee for Putin and Lvova-Belova is galvanizing organizations like the European Union and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to take a multinational approach to coordinate the reunification of children.
“The coordination of this international community [is] how are we going to make sure these kids don’t come home as adults and we have to do DNA identification … .”
The radio segment was produced by Pedro Sanchez.
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