Russia uses abducted Ukrainian children as hostages – human rights activist Pavlichenko

He expressed this opinion on the Espreso TV channel

"Russia is using Ukrainian children as hostages. I would like to remind you that a delegation of African leaders, who position themselves as peacekeepers, raised the issue of Ukraine withdrawing its lawsuit from the International Criminal Court over the abduction of our children. In fact, they asked for the arrest warrant for Putin to be cancelled. It is quite clear at whose request they did this. Therefore, although the Russian Federation says that this court decision does not mean anything to them, the status of war criminals is being assigned to them in the world," Pavlichenko explained.

The human rights activist stressed that all measures should be taken to return Ukrainian children to Ukraine

"We need to look for evidence and facts of Russia's abduction of our children. Investigative actions must be carried out and the fact of the crime must be proved in court. This is necessary in order to identify each child. However, most importantly, we must do everything to ensure that all our children abducted by Russia are returned back to Ukraine," he added.

Deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia

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 and Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of forcibly deporting Ukrainian children.

On May 13, at a briefing in Rome with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, President Zelenskyy said that he had information about more than 19,300 children deported by the Russians. 

On May 29, 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 militarize Ukrainian children in the temporarily occupied territories.

On June 8, 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 June 27, 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 July 6, Ukraine returned home two children deported by Russia. Their mother, a combat medic, was released as part of a large exchange in October 2022. A week later, Ukraine took back from Russian occupation two children who were separated from their parents on the first day of the full-scale invasion.

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

On July 18, 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.

The US Senate also called on the White House to impose sanctions against those involved in the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and their illegal adoption.

On August 10, National Resistance Center reported Russian forces took teenagers from the temporarily occupied territories of the Donetsk region to military camps in Russia. The teenagers are being trained there, among other things.

On August 11, the self-proclaimed President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko has confirmed that forcibly deported Ukrainian children are held in his country. He added that Russia, Belarus would continue to take children from Ukraine.