Ukraine has verified almost 19,500 children kidnapped by Russia

The Russian authorities recorded the removal of 744,000 Ukrainian children from temporarily occupied territories to Russia in their official documents.

Ukrainian authorities have verified nearly 19,500 children and established their whereabouts. As the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, reported: ‘I’ll give a few figures. The first figure is 1.6 million. This is the number of Ukrainian children who lived in territories now controlled by the Russian authorities. The next figure is 744,000 Ukrainian children. This is the number that the Russians officially recorded in their reports.’ Lubinets noted that the Russian presidential commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, who received an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, officially cited 744,000 as the number of Ukrainian children physically taken by the Russians from temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories to the Russian Federation.

Another figure is 19,546. This is a number verified by Ukrainian authorities and intelligence agencies. These are Ukrainian children we have found, verified, and know where they are and what is happening to them, added the ombudsman. He explained that some of these children were ‘adopted’ by Russians. For example, Lvova-Belova herself ‘adopted’ a Ukrainian boy, Filip, from Mariupol. He is now considered a citizen of the Russian Federation. Another example is the story of a little Ukrainian girl, Margarita. She was deported when she was 10 months old. She was ‘adopted’ by State Duma deputy Sergey Mironov. Her name, patronymic, surname, date, and place of birth were changed. She is now registered as Marina Mironova, supposedly born in the Moscow region. At the same time, she has a biological brother and sister in Ukraine. We have repeatedly suggested DNA testing for her return. There are many such cases, noted the commissioner. Lubinets added that it seems as if a ‘certain fashionable trend’ has formed in Russian authorities — to ‘adopt’ Ukrainian children.