About 150,000 Ukrainian children are illegally taken to Russia – Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman

Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets reported this in a commentary to Ukrinform in Ivano-Frankivsk.

"There are 16,207 officially verified children on the territory of the Russian Federation. I, as an ombudsman, know which Ukrainian cities these children are from and where they are approximately located in the Russian Federation. Real numbers are much bigger. We assume that this number reaches approximately 150,000 children. Russia talks about 733,000 Ukrainian children held on its territory. However, in our opinion, this number is exaggerated," he said.

In addition, he also said that most children were taken to Russia from the regions that were temporarily occupied, namely Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea. Other violations were also recorded there.

"When Kherson was liberated, I was there on the third day. Then we identified the boys who were in the Russian torture chamber. One of them is Vitaliy, 14 years old. He was tortured for 10 days in Kherson. He was severely beaten, and received his first meal only on the 6th day of captivity. The guy was caught with his uncle near the destroyed Russian equipment and accused of taking pictures of this equipment. They didn't even have their phones with them. But this did not stop the Russians. They beat them, tied them up and tortured them," Lubinets said.

Lubinets also noted that Ukraine is now seeking to legally recognize the facts of the deportation of Ukrainian children during the war as genocide.

"Why are we talking about genocide? Because, according to international law, one of its features is forced displacement from one ethnic group to another. They take Ukrainian children who speak Ukrainian, move them to the territory of the Russian Federation and say that you have never been Ukrainian. They forbid the use of the Ukrainian language, do not issue documents, do not let children out," he said.

Meanwhile, people in the temporarily occupied territories are afraid to report such facts to the Ukrainian authorities.

"Even the fact of addressing me can be interpreted as espionage in favor of Russia. Their cynicism there is just off the charts," Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman emphasized.

At the same time, he said, people in the temporarily occupied territories should find any opportunity to leave. He also added that when people are missing, one should try to inform the Ukrainian authorities in any way possible and send them a message that help is needed.

• On November 17, the Institute for the Study of War reported that Russia had begun to openly promote the deportation and adoption of Ukrainian children.

• On November 26, it was reported that under the guise of "medical assistance" the enemy wants to deport more than 10,000 children from the temporarily occupied territories to Russia.  

• On December 16, the National Resistance Center reported that the day before, Russian terrorists had taken 40 Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied Lysychansk and Severodonetsk.

• Pavlo Lysyansky, a human rights activist and director of the Institute for Strategic Studies and Security, said that the Russian invaders were taking Ukrainian children to replenish their losses from Russia's military aggression in Ukraine.

• Dmytro Lubinets, Ukrainian Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, said that as of December 23, there were 13,613 Ukrainian children who had been taken to the territory of the Russian Federation.