Just 324 of the estimated at least 16,200 children have been deported and held for Russia they have so far returned to Ukraine, while families, voluntary foundations and the state treat each case separately in the absence of a single mechanism for their repatriation.
The fundamental problem is Lack of information on the whereabouts of the children, explains to Efe Olga Yerokhina, press officer of the humanitarian foundation “Save Ukraine”.
“Russia has an obligation to provide lists of children you retain. They have not done it. In some cases, children are moved across Russia without their relatives knowing where they are,” she explained.
Only a small part of them have been able to return. Your relatives have to overcome expensive multi-day tripsfrom Ukraine to places scattered throughout Russia, until these minors are recovered.
‘Save Ukraine‘ Help arrange transport, provide legal assistance and cover the cost of travel, which is often prohibitively expensive for those who lost their homes and source of income in the Russian invasion. The organization has already helped recover 61 children.
Russia lied to children
A group of 17 returned from Russia with their families on Wednesday. All of them had been transferred to Russia from areas occupied by his troops in the Kharkov and Kherson regions.
After the recapture of those areas by the Ukrainian army last fall, the Russians refused to return. One of the children stated upon his arrival to the local media “Grunt” that they were systematically beaten for expressing pro-Ukrainian positions. He assured that they were threatened: “The Russians said they would give us up for adoption.”
They went so far as to lie to him, telling him that his parents “refused to let him come back.” When their mother contacted the director of the Russian camp where they were being held, she replied: “You won’t be able to get them back anyway. These children are now from Russia.”
The cases, to the International Criminal Court
The foundation has been documenting these cases and delivering them to the International Criminal Court.
“The figure of 16,210 deported children only refers to documented cases,” explained Daria Gerasymchuk, Ukrainian Commissioner for Children’s Rights, in an interview with the Ukrainian-language channel of German international television Deutsche Welle.
The commissioner stressed that a considerable part of Ukraine is still occupiedso it is difficult to specify that number.
The kidnapping of these minors can take several forms: some are deported after being separated from their parents, due to the death of their parents or for being in orphanages. Residents of the occupied regions have also been pressured to send their children “to a safe place” in “summer camps”, according to Gerasymchuk.
The commissioner believes that Russia intends to use children to “repopulate his nation”: “All their actions indicate that they do not plan to return the children. The Russian Federation has facilitated the adoption and change of citizenship procedures for them,” he said.
Gerasymchuk stated that a large team is working to recover the children, without revealing any details, route or scenario. “If we discuss even one scenario, next time it won’t work.”
Yerokhina told EFE that a huge international impact which has adopted the matter seems to have slightly improved the situation.
“Beforethe Russians only gave children to one of their parents. The notarial authorization of one of them or the presence of another family member was not enough, which in many cases made it impossible to return the children. On our last mission they agreed to let some of the children come back to Ukraine with our team,” he explains.
The ‘Save Ukraine’ team hopes that the initiative announced yesterday by the President of the European Commission (EC), Ursula von der Leyen, willHelp thousands of deported Ukrainian children return to their country.
Von der Leyen and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki announced yesterday the organization of a conference to help locate the 16,200 Ukrainian children deported by Russia. The aim of the initiative is to help international organizations obtain information about these children, including those who were adopted or transferred to Russian foster families after being deported.