Russia deports Ukrainian children since 2014, Ukraine’s ombudsman reminds UN

This was reported by Ukrinform.

The Ombudsman said that the Russian Federation deliberately changes legislation to make it impossible for Ukrainian children to return to their homeland and uses, among other things, the forced change of their citizenship to Russian.

Lubinets emphasised that cases of imposing Russian citizenship on children have been recorded since 2014 and reminded that Russian President Vladimir Putin signed relevant decrees to simplify this process.

"For teenage boys, this means being cannon fodder in the Russian army and not being able to leave Russia after reaching the age of conscription," Lubinets said.

The ombudsman called the policy of re-education and "change of homeland" evidence of genocidal intentions. Lubinets also said that the Presidential Grants Fund in the Russian Federation finances organisations for ‘patriotic education’ of children, in particular in Chechnya, creating youth paramilitary structures.

Lubinets recalled that Russian children's ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova, whose arrest was ordered by the International Criminal Court, said that she was "teaching love for Russia" to Ukrainian children who disrespected Putin and sang the Ukrainian anthem.

The Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights noted that Russia uses education as a tool to erase Ukrainian identity.

"The educational process is being militarised on the model of the Nazi Hitler Youth," Lubinets said, mentioning the "youth army," cadet schools and the lessons of the "great change" in Russia.

The ombudsman said that Russian textbooks teach children about the "absence of an independent Ukrainian state, an original Ukrainian people" and the importance of "expanding the territory of the state by any means that are honourable and important for the Russian Federation." At the same time, Ukrainian culture and history, as well as prominent figures, are portrayed as part of Russian history.

Lubinets called on the world "to put more pressure on Russia, to stop ignoring this genocide and to comply with the provisions of the UN Charter."

• On April 27, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recognized the deportation of residents of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia as genocide and welcomed arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court for Putin and Russian children's rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova.

• Vladimir Putin signed a decree on the possibility of deporting residents of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine for refusing to take Russian passports.

• The Office of the President of Ukraine called this decree "an obvious manifestation of the genocidal nature of the war" and an attempt to change the ethnic composition of the population of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.