Ukraine claims that 20,000 children were taken without their consent or that of their families to Russia. Vladimir Putin continues to defend his “traditional family” policy.
Russia defended its “traditional family” policy before the United Nations (UN) this Monday, before giving explanations about the forcible transfer to Russia, which according to kyiv, affected thousands of Ukrainian children, after the start of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Last March, andPresident Vladimir Putin and Russian Children’s Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belovafaced an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court (CPI) for alleged “illegal deportation” of minors. Moscow described this initiative as “null”.
The traditional Russian family but with Ukrainian children
In its opening statement, Alexei Vovchenko, head of the Russian delegation and deputy minister of Labor and Social Protectiondid not mention the forcible transfer of children but defended Russian measures for “the strengthening of the family as an institution and the protection of traditional families.”
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He Committee on the Rights of the Child, composed of 18 independent experts, will carry out the examination of the Russia case, which began on Monday afternoon in Geneva and will last two days. Russia received the list of experts’ concerns months ago.
They want to know how many children there were “evacuees” to Russia or to the Ukrainian territories under Russian occupation, and “the measures taken to protect the right of these children to preserve their identity, including their nationality.”
Where are the Ukrainian children who were forcibly sent to Russia?
kyiv estimates that some 20,000 Ukrainian children were forcibly sent to Russia. Only 400 have been repatriated so far. Moscow says its goal is to protect these minors from fighting.
The relocation of evacuated children is done, “at their request and with their consent,” Russia stated in its written responses transmitted last year to the committee, and which the UN released to the press last week.
There is no exact number of Ukrainian children
He document does not include the total number of children transferred. But he assures that “among the evacuees there were also children of public residential institutions for orphans and homeless children (about 2,000 people in total), whose legal representatives were the directors or employees of these institutions”.
The response of Moscow also indicates that, according to statistics from the Ministry of the Interior, 46,886 Ukrainian children They acquired Russian nationality between April 1, 2022 and the middle of last year.
Source: Ambito
