Belarus was excluded from the International Federation of the Red Cross due to the deportation of Ukrainian children

The Belarusian Red Cross Society was expelled from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies for its involvement in the deportation of Ukrainian children.

As the press service of the International Federation of the Red Cross reports, the Belarusian Red Cross ignored calls to release its Secretary General Dmytro Shevtsov.

The federation announced that the Belarusian Red Cross will lose its membership rights, lose funding and will not be able to participate in the General Assembly of the International Federation of the Red Cross, as well as vote or be elected at any statutory meetings of the International Federation of the Red Cross.

The Belarusian Red Cross will be able to return to the federation if it complies with the decision of the Board of the International Federation of the Red Cross to dismiss Shevtsov.

Earlier, the International Federation of the Red Cross accused Shevtsov of violating the fundamental principles of the Red Cross and Red Crescent. At the same time, the organization believes that the deportation of children was not managed by the Belarusian Red Cross, but by “another organization”, but the Red Cross of Belarus “works with children” who are abducted from Ukraine and taken to the territory of the country.

During a trip to the occupied territory of the Donetsk region in the summer of 2023, Dmytro Shevtsov told propagandists that the Belarusian Red Cross “took, is taking and will take an active part” in the removal of children from Ukraine.

In November, a Yale University study was published, according to which more than 2,400 Ukrainian children between the ages of six and 17 have been deported to Belarus since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Darya Kasyanova, program director of the international charity SOS Children’s Towns Ukraine, head of the board of the Ukrainian Network for Children’s Rights (Photo: Darya Kasyanova via facebook)

According to the Ukrainian state platform Children of War, at least 19,546 children have been deported or forcibly relocated by the aggressor country Russia.

In general, according to the European Parliament, the number of Ukrainian children illegally deported to Russia may reach 300,000. The MEPs believe that the Russians started taking away Ukrainian children back in 2014 — since the occupation of Crimea and parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

On March 17, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian dictator Vladimir Putin on suspicion of committing war crimes in connection with the deportation of Ukrainian children to the Russian Federation.