In Ukraine they are called “ogres” because they “steal children”. For the Russians, they are “generous re-educators.” Like the Chechen Chalayev, who, after the Mariupol massacre, directs the training of young people deported to Grozny. Locked up in the training center of dictator Kadyrov’s Islamist special forces. Or like orphans who were taken to a “colony” in Crimea, where they received a Russian passport. The plan to indoctrinate the “Children of War” was not improvised. And after months of accusations and suspicions, confirmations from UN officials and cross-checks are arriving. Now we know the names and faces of the “bad teachers.” The only uncertainty are the numbers. “At the moment there are only estimates and no secured data. What we do know is that norms have been enacted that contradict international law,” the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, replied two days ago. which upheld the practice of changing citizenship for unaccompanied minors brought under the control of the Russian authorities and “other recently adopted norms facilitating the adoption of these children”, in violation of international law. The families have lost track of him for months.
Sometimes it was the mothers, left without a husband because of the war, who turned their children over to the Russian authorities or the separatists with promises that they would take them safely and away from the fighting. Now they are afraid to talk to journalists. They fear being identified by the Russians and in retaliation lose all hope of ever seeing their children again. “I thought Putin would help us – says a displaced person from Mariupol -. Before the war, I liked the idea of returning to Moscow, but when I saw how they really treated us, I regretted it. It’s my fault: I trusted them with my child and they won’t tell me where they took it.” In the past few weeks, a displaced mother from the Donbass near Kiev has tried to get to Russia via Belarus. A desperate journey of hope to find the daughter of a few years. She was turned away by the Moscow customs officials.
In Crimea or on Russia’s Pacific coast, 8,500 kilometers from here, your son could be anywhere. The testimonies of parents or family members of children voluntarily handed over to Russians are not always clear. But there are those who say they had no choice, hoping to give their children a chance to survive the bombings and massacres that took place in many basements “cleansed” by the occupying forces.
“kidnapped”
First confirmations of the indoctrination plans of the “war children” deported to Grozny.
They are locked up in the center of the Islamist special organs of dictator Kadyrov. But also in a colony in Crimea
Researchers from the Yale University Center for Human Rights examined testimonies, satellite imagery and photos circulating on Russian social media. Other independent humanitarian organizations are doing the same, from Amnesty to Human Rights Watch to investigators from the Criminal Court in The Hague and the Prosecutor General’s Office in Kiev. According to Yale, there are at least 43 institutions dedicated to Ukrainian children in Russia. Conservative estimates put at least six thousand minors in Russian hands, but “further data suggests that the total number of institutions and children incarcerated,” the researchers explain — is likely much higher. Many are orphans from Ukrainian Youth facilities Many are youths taken from the “filtration camps” at the beginning of the conflict.Among those identified, the most distant center is in Magadan in the Russian Far East, three times closer to the US than to the border with Ukraine.
.
To get visual confirmation and facilitate identification, the international investigators used some tips and materials provided by “Cc030 and Cc0301” (Chechen 030 – Chechen 031), codenames of some confidential sources on Russian territory. Thanks to them, among other things, it was possible to have certainty about the involvement of the Kadyrovites, soldiers under the command of Ramzan Kadyrov. In one of the pictures we’re releasing today, with faces partially obscured, the boys are with four adults. Not the best travel companions. In the photo above you can see from left Vladimir Khromov (Deputy of the Presidential Commissioner of the Russian Federation for Children’s Rights), Zamid Chalayev (Commander of the “Kadyrov Special Regiment”), Akhmed Dudayev (Minister of the Chechen Republic for National Policy, Foreign Relations, Press and Information). ). A number of films that Avvenire has collected concern Chalayev himself. Chechen propaganda takes him back while he is ordering the attacks, taking part in the firefights, showing the corpses, studying the maps of the cities that are gradually being razed to the ground become.
.
Moscow said in January this year that 728,000 minors had arrived in Russia since February 2022. Most of them are still with their families or with supportive adults. The Ukrainian government has collected reports of more than 14,700 unaccompanied children who have been classified as “deportees”.. According to Unicef and Unhcr-Acnur documents viewed by Avvenire, many of the approximately 100,000 children housed in Ukrainian institutions or boarding schools until the outbreak of the war have living relatives and guardians. Already on July 14, 2022, Maria Lvova-Belova, Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights of Russia, announced that “a total of 108 “orphans from Donbass” who received Russian citizenship will be reassigned to new parents in six regions of Russia”. She herself, portrayed by the media as a pious woman dedicated to the cause of the defenseless, announced on September 21 that her “adopted son from Mariupol” had just received Russian citizenship. To give an example, Lvova-Belova would have adopted at least eight Ukrainian children.
The forced deportation of minors is “A very serious crime,” comments Filippo Ungaro, Communications Director at Save The Children: “We call for an independent international commission led by the UN that it is able to investigate and investigate, pinpoint and protect these crimes and bring them back to their families and communities of origin”.