More than 700,000 Ukrainian children taken to Russia since start of war, Russian official says

More than 700,000 Ukrainian children taken to Russia since start of war, Russian official says

More than 700,000 Ukrainian children have been taken to Russia since the beginning of the war, according to Maria Lvova-Belova, Russian ombudsperson for children's rights.

“Since February 2022, the Russian Federation has received about 4.8 million residents of Ukraine and the Donbas republics, of which more than 700,000 are children,” she said in a report Monday.

The report claims most of them arrived “with their parents or other relatives.”

Lvova-Belova is one of the two Russians that the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague issued a warrant against in March, alleging their responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation and transfer of children during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin is the second individual they charged.

According to the document, about 1,500 students of institutions for orphans or those left without parental care came to Russia, and 288 children from the occupied Donetsk region were subsequently placed under guardianship in foster families of Russian citizens.

“Children from the LPR [Luhansk People’s Republic] returned to their institutions, but subsequently 92 children left without parental care, at the request of the authorized bodies in the field of guardianship and guardianship of the Republic, were placed under guardianship in Russian foster families,” it added. Read More