Russian officials seek abducted Ukrainian children for 'adoption' - Ombudsman Lubinets

Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets shared this information at a press conference in Ivano-Frankivsk, as reported by Ukrinform.

According to Lubinets, the Russians have started a public relations campaign to promote 'the adoption' of Ukrainian children who have been forcibly taken from their homeland.

"The Russian authorities have started a PR campaign in which abducting Ukrainian children has become a trend. We are getting reports that officials from the State Duma, the government, and regional leaders are actively searching for Ukrainian children to 'adopt,'” said Lubinets.

He mentioned the case of Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova, who publicly admitted to taking a boy from Mariupol into her family. There are also reports that State Duma deputy Sergey Mironov has taken two Ukrainian children.

These Russian officials have changed the names of the abducted children.

"We have witnessed a clear and completed criminal act involving the kidnapping of two Ukrainian children. Their surnames were changed - Marharyta Prokopenko became Marina Mironova. They also altered her place of birth and her identification documents. As for the boy, Illia, who was taken with Marharyta, after being examined in Moscow and found to have a disease, we suspect that the Mironov family decided to abandon him due to his illness. However, we cannot determine what happened to him or where he was taken," Lubinets added.

He emphasized that Ukraine is currently working with its partners to negotiate the return of children who have been abducted by the occupying Russian army and are now living in families of the Russian authorities.

• On July 9, Ukrainian Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets stated that so far 736 children illegally taken by Russia since the beginning of the full-scale invasion have been returned to Ukraine.