Russia takes more over 3000 Ukrainian children to Belarus - Ukraine's UN Permanent Representative

Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations Sergiy Kyslytsya said this at a meeting of the Security Council, Ukrinform reports.

He addressed the members from Belarus on the issue of the forced displacement of Ukrainian children from the occupied territories. He noted that minors are "subjected to anti-Ukrainian indoctrination and propaganda aimed at instilling hatred for Ukraine, its language, culture and history."

In addition to deportation to Russia and transfer within the occupied territories, children are also taken to Belarus. Thus, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, more than 3,000 Ukrainian children have been taken to Belarus from the temporarily occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions under the guise of "rehabilitation," the Permanent Representative emphasized.

Deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and Belarus

In the context of a full-scale invasion, Russia is deporting Ukrainian children en masse from the occupied territories of Ukraine. They are taken to the occupied Crimea, Russia or Belarus, allegedly for rehabilitation or to rest in camps.

On March 17, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian leader Vladimir Putin. He is suspected of forcibly deporting Ukrainian children.

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 the issuance of arrest warrants for Putin and Russian Children's Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova by the International Criminal Court.

On the same day, Vladimir Putin signed a decree allowing for the deportation of Ukrainians for refusing to accept Russian passports.

A special report presented by the OSCE on May 4 stated that Russia's forced deportation of Ukrainian children could be recognized as a crime against humanity.

On May 14, the National Resistance Center reported that in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, Russian invaders were forcibly issuing passports to children as young as 14 years old, threatening their parents. 

On May 24, the Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office reported that Ukraine was investigating the possible role of Belarus in the forced deportation of children from the temporarily occupied territories. Criminal proceedings were opened. 

On 29 May, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets spoke at an informal meeting of the UN Security Council on the issue of Russia's abduction of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine. The Ombudsman said that Russia deliberately changes legislation to make it impossible for Ukrainian children to return home and uses, among other things, the forced change of their citizenship to Russian.

Lubinets also noted that Russia does not provide any data on Ukrainian deported children - it is not even known where they are and in what conditions. He also said that Russians use child labour and militarise Ukrainian children in the temporarily occupied territories.

During medical examinations in the temporarily occupied territories, Russians give children fake diagnoses, and then force their parents to consent to so-called treatment or rehabilitation of their children in Russia. 

President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, recently acquainted himself with the Bring Kids Back UA plan, aimed at facilitating the repatriation of children who were illegally deported by Russia. He also participated in the opening of the Center for the Protection of Children's Rights.

Ukraine’s Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets says Ukraine has confirmation that the forced deportation of Ukrainian children and prisoners of war took place on the territory of Belarus with the participation of the Belarusian authorities. 

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories Iryna Vereshchuk said that Russia is changing the names and dates of birth of illegally deported children.

On 8 June, a US Senate committee supported a draft resolution condemning the abduction of Ukrainian children by Russia and calling the occupiers' actions genocide.

Later, evidence emerged of Belarus' involvement in the deportation of Ukrainian children. On 27 June, the Belarusian opposition submitted evidence to the International Criminal Court of the involvement of self-proclaimed head of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko and his entourage in war crimes.

In return, the Russian State Duma stated that 700,000 Ukrainian children had been deported to Russia since 2014.

On 13 July, the National Resistance Centre reported that during the month of 2023, Russians took about 280 children from the temporarily occupied Luhansk region to the Russian Republic of Kalmykia.

On Monday, 17 July, the UK government imposed new sanctions against Russians involved in the illegal removal of children from Ukraine. These include the Russian Ministers of Culture and Education.

On 18 July, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called on UN countries to join forces and force Russia to return to Ukrainian parents their children taken against their will to Russia during the war in Ukraine.

Later, Pavel Latushko, head of the People's Anti-Crisis Management and representative of the UnitedTransitional Cabinet of Belarus, said that some Ukrainian children from the occupied territories who had been taken to Belarus for "rehabilitation" had not returned. However, the head of the Belarusian Red Cross Society, Dmitry Shevtsov, reacted to this statement and called it "accusations" against Belarus. In response, Kyslytsya asked the UN to respond to the Belarusian Red Cross's admission of deporting children from Ukraine.

On July 21, it was reported that the Russians had taken 100 children from the temporarily occupied territories of Kherson region to Saransk to a sanatorium. It also became known that the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment of the Russian Federation organized a "vacation" for 77 children from the temporarily occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia region in Stavropol.