Austria-based SOS Children’s Villages rejects allegations that the international aid organization is involved in Russia’s kidnapping of Ukrainian children. This was reported by the magazine ZDF “Front”. “We have nothing to do with kidnappings. We do our job and help children in need,” SOS Children’s Village spokesperson Jakob Kramar-Schmid said today.
The ZDF report first shows a yellow bus stopping at the SOS Tomilino Children’s Village near Moscow. Kids with balloons and big stuffed animals come out, the sun is shining, it’s obviously hot. The footage “reveals how Russian foster parents are brought into a red brick home with Ukrainian children.”
Then you see Russian child rights officer Maria Lvova-Belova’s December 2022 visit to the SOS Tomilino Children’s Village: It is said that “propaganda photos with kidnapped Ukrainian children” were taken.
“Strong evidence” that children are from Ukraine
According to the spokesman for the SOS Children’s Village, Russian colleagues first reported in November 2022 about 13 children whose origin was unclear. Russian authorities approached the children’s village with a request to take care of the children. “We face the dilemma of not helping or helping underprivileged children who would otherwise be left on the streets,” said Kramar-Schmid. “Colleagues in Russia are doing incredibly good work and are under great political pressure.”
There are “strong indications” that the 13 minors of unknown origin are Ukrainian children. Even if “we think we can find the children’s parents in Ukraine, it’s not so easy to get the children out of Russia,” says Kramar-Schmid.
Where SOS Children’s Villages is looking and whether the organization has already found the parents but cannot bring the children from Russia cannot be said at the moment: According to Kramar-Schmid, responses to this put affected children at risk , families in Ukraine and SOS Children’s Village Workers in Russia. “If Russian authorities close SOS Children’s Villages, what will happen then. We are committed to the children.”
Adoptive families employed by Russia
It is usually part of the work of SOS Children’s Villages that minors maintain contact with their parents. Only a minority of those taken in are orphans, the majority live in “professional host families, a kind of shared apartment” because the families of origin are very poor.
These foster families are housed in the SOS Children’s Village, but the caretakers are selected and hired by the Russian state. These foster families, in turn, would be cared for by the SOS Children’s Village team. Children living in an SOS Children’s Village “of course not” would be put up for adoption.