According to a Ukrainian aid organisation, another 31 children who were kidnapped from Ukraine during the war were returned to their families this week. Mykola Kuleba, founder of the organization “Save Ukraine”, said in Kiev on Saturday that the children’s Ukrainian relatives were helped with planning and return transport. It was the fifth campaign of its kind.
The Ukrainian government has said that since the February 2022 invasion of Moscow, nearly 19,500 children have been trafficked into Russia from Russian-controlled territories. These are illegal deportations. Russia, which controls parts of eastern and southern Ukraine, does not deny the evacuation of children. However, these were not kidnappings, but a humanitarian action to protect orphans and children left behind in conflict zones.
Kuleba, a former Ukrainian commissioner for children’s rights, said children were trafficked from occupied parts of Ukraine’s Kharkiv and Kherson regions. Russia said they would be taken to “summer camps”. All the children brought in from Save Ukraine said that no one in Russia tried to find their parents in Ukraine. Some children would have changed locations five times in five months. A grandmother who was supposed to pick up two of her grandchildren died on the return journey. Those kids should have stayed in Russia.
Initially, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to comment on the information. In March, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova. They are accused of kidnapping children. A few days ago, Lwowa-Belowa said it was about protecting children in combat zones. No one was taken against her will or against the will of her parents or legal guardians. Parental consent was always obtained.
At the press conference with Kuleba on Saturday in Kiev, three children were also present who, according to Save Ukraine, were brought back to Ukraine in a previous repatriation operation. They said their parents were pressured by Russia to send the children to Russian summer camps for an alleged two-week period. In fact, they had to stay there for four to six months and were moved from place to place during that time. One of the children, whose name was given as Vitali, said they were treated “like animals”. They were also told that their parents didn’t want them back.