The Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, stated that there is confirmation of the adoption of 386 Ukrainian children in the Russian Federation during the war. He made this statement during a television marathon.
"We have confirmed 386 children. It has been established that they were placed in Russian families, and either the adoption procedure has started or has been completed," Lubinets said.
According to him, terminology is of great importance because there are nuances in whether it is adoption or temporary guardianship.
The Ombudsman reminded that after the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Putin and the Russian Ombudswoman Maria Lvova-Belova, the latter stated that she did not adopt a Ukrainian child but rather took the child under temporary protection.
"These terms are very important to us, and it is crucial for us to establish the legal fact that Russians are adopting Ukrainian children. Then, this clearly falls under the signs of the war crime of genocide, which should be interpreted as a war crime committed by the highest military-political leadership of the Russian Federation. This is what we are working on," emphasized the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights.
In the conditions of a full-scale invasion, Russia is forcibly deporting Ukrainian children from the occupied territories of Ukraine. They are being taken to the occupied Crimea, Russia, or Belarus, allegedly for rehabilitation or recreation in camps.
In March, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and the Russian Ombudsman for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, due to the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children.
On May 13, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during a briefing in Rome with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, stated that there is precise information about more than 19,300 children deported by the Russians. Then, on May 29, the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, addressed an informal meeting of the UN Security Council regarding Russia's abduction of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine. The Ombudsman explained that Russia is deliberately changing its legislation to prevent the return of Ukrainian children to their homeland, including forcibly changing their citizenship to Russian.
Additionally, Lubinets noted that Russia has not provided any information about the Ukrainian children they deported. It is unknown where these children are and under what conditions they are living. He also mentioned that Russians are using child labor and militarizing Ukrainian children in the temporarily occupied territories.
On June 8, a committee of the U.S. Senate supported a resolution condemning Russia for kidnapping Ukrainian children and referred to the actions of the occupiers as genocide. Later, evidence emerged linking Belarus to the deportation of Ukrainian children. On June 27, the Belarusian opposition handed over evidence of the involvement of self-proclaimed Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko and his associates in war crimes to the International Criminal Court.
On July 13, the National Resistance Center reported that during the month of July 2023, Russians transported approximately 280 children from the temporarily occupied Luhansk region to the Russian Republic of Kalmykia.
