Russia is accused of abducting thousands of children from Ukraine. The British broadcaster BBC followed the trail of a missing Ukrainian two-year-old – and discovered something astonishing.
A key political ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin is said to have adopted a girl who was kidnapped from a Ukrainian children’s home. Sergei Mironov, head of the Kremlin-loyal Just Russia party and chairman of the Russian Federation Council for many years, is named in the adoption documents of a two-year-old who was adopted in lieu of a child by his current wife in 2022, reports the British broadcaster BBC. The documents show that the girl’s identity was changed in Russia.
Russians in military clothing pick up Margarita
According to the BBC, the child’s original name was Margarita. The girl and 47 other residents disappeared from a children’s home in Kherson after the Russian armed forces occupied the southern Ukrainian city for several months in spring 2022. Margarita was the youngest in the home for children with medical problems whose parents had lost custody or died. Her mother gave up custody shortly after the birth and her father’s whereabouts were unknown.
The then ten-month-old Margarita was treated for bronchitis in the Kherson Children’s Hospital in August 2022, the responsible senior doctor Natalia Ljutikova told the BBC. A woman appeared there in a purple dress and introduced herself as “head of the children’s department from Moscow.” After the woman left, a Russian official who had recently been appointed to manage the children’s home called several times, Lyutikowa reported. He demanded that Margarita be sent back to the home immediately.
The girl was released from the hospital within a week. The next morning, the children’s home staff were asked to prepare Margarita for a trip. “We were scared, everyone was scared,” the BBC quoted Lyubov Zayko, a nurse at the home, as saying. Russian men, some in military camouflage trousers, picked up the girl. “It was like a movie.” A few weeks later, the other children, including Margarita’s half-brother Maxym, were also kidnapped. The reason given at the time was that the children would be brought to safe conditions on the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula.
According to its own statements, the BBC, together with the Ukrainian human rights activist Viktoria Novikova, tried to track down Margarita and the other 47 children for five months. Finally, it was possible to identify the woman in the purple dress as Inna Varlamova, an employee of the Russian parliament. Using data on train ticket purchases, it was also possible to trace a trip to Kherson on the day Margarita was kidnapped from the children’s home. Varlamova is said to have driven back to Moscow that same evening – with an extra ticket.
Further research has shown that Varlamova has recently been married – to the 70-year-old party leader Mironov. The couple has a daughter, whose birth record was created last December for a 14-month-old girl named Marina, the British broadcaster reports. The parents there are Inna Varlamova and Sergei Mironov listed. Unusually, there is no original entry about the birth of the child. Marina’s birthday is dated October 31, 2021 – the same day Margarita was born.
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“When I saw that Marina’s birthday coincided with Margarita’s, I knew it was a hit,” Novikova told the BBC. Anonymous Russian sources then obtained Margarita’s adoption file. This proves that Margarita Prokopenko was renamed Marina Mironova, after her adoptive father Sergei Mironov.
Ukraine speaks of 20,000 children abducted
According to the BBC, the Russian government said it had no knowledge of Margarita’s case and could not comment on it. Mironov did not respond to requests for comment.
According to the British broadcaster, Novikova handed over a dossier with new evidence to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office. This will forward the documents to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Under international law, the deportation of children is considered genocide. Kiev accuses Kremlin troops of kidnapping around 20,000 children since the Russian invasion began on February 24, 2022. In February of this year, Yale University counted at least 6,000 children who Russia is said to have taken to re-education camps. This is also why the Hague Tribunal issued an arrest warrant against Putin and his representative for children’s rights at the beginning of 2023. Marija Lwowa-Belowa (You can read the background here).
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Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
