The Russian government uses various schemes to deport Ukrainian children to the Russian Federation

Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova confirmed that the Russian government uses various schemes to deport Ukrainian children to Russia.

The Russian commissioner’s comment was aimed at refuting the Western countries’ accusations of the illegality of these actions.

In a message dated March 10, 2023, Lvova-Belova accused the West of artificially creating fear about the deportation and forced adoption of Ukrainian children and stated that the children came to the occupied territories of Ukraine and the territory of Russia “voluntarily” and can return to their families.

Lvova-Belova admitted that the Russian authorities took children from the Kherson, Zaporizhzhіa and Kharkiv regions to “sanatoria” and health camps in the occupied Crimea and Krasnodar Krai for “rest” and protection from hostilities, and stated that 89 “children of Ukrainian citizens” will be deported to be reunited with their families under such programs in Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory.

The Institute for the Study of War reported on such schemes for the removal of children from Ukraine under the guise of recreation programs and noted that several children in Krasnodar Krai and Crimea were held for forced adoption into Russian families.

An independent investigation by the Yale Humanities Research Laboratory found that of the likely more than 14,700 Ukrainian children deported to Russia, only 126 had returned to Ukraine as of January 2023.

Lvova-Belova’s statement that a certain number of Ukrainian children are returned to their families does not deny the fact that the vast majority of kidnapped children do not return to Ukraine. The Institute for the Study of War argues that the forced deportation and adoption of Ukrainian children is a clear violation of the Geneva Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide, as well as part of a broader campaign of ethnic cleansing.

On December 21, 2022, Ukraine returned three children deported from the Russian Federation under the pretext of “rehabilitation”.

On December 20, 2022, a teenager who was forcibly deported by the occupiers was returned to Ukraine. 16-year-old Serhiy lived near Mariupol in Donetsk region, shortly before the war he lost his parents. The Russians forcibly took him and many other children to Donetsk, and later to the Russian Federation. The teenager returned to the Motherland, where his sister lives.

On December 17, 2022, two brothers – 11-year-old Mark and 18-year-old Danylo – were returned to Ukraine. Their mother was also in captivity and returned to the Motherland during the so-called “female exchange”.