Moscow officially admits that she “accepted” 700,000 Ukrainian children. Kyiv says: there are twice as many. Those that miraculously manage to recover, return with a luggage difficult to bear. In Kiev, Katarzyna Górniak Włada, a boy abducted to the camp in the Crimea, told his story.
The Russians, since the war began, unlawfully export Ukrainian children to Russia. – They said that if I didn't make my child a Russian birth certificate, they would take her to Russia. They took my neighbor. To this day, nobody knows where this child is – recalls Oksana.
The return of kidnapped children Ukraine now puts as one of the main conditions of any peace negotiations. – We have all legal grounds to recognize the actions of the Russian Federation towards Ukrainian children as a war crime – emphasizes Dmytro Łubiniec, a Ukrainian Ombudsman for Children.
Three years ago Wł was 16 years old. He trained boxing and wanted to become a sea mechanic, but when the Russians took his city, the occupation began, and in schools Russification.
– People with rifles and uniforms came to our apartment. They said I should go with them. We set off under a convoy on Crimea. Me and several hundred other students. When we got to the border with Crimea, they gave us a document. There was a date of entry on it, but there was no date of departure. I understood that I could never go home again – recalls Władysław Rudenko.
The Kremlin directly participated in the abduction of children from Ukraine to Russia. Researchers from Yale presented a reportAnna Czerwińska/Fakty TVN
“They change all documents from Ukrainian to Russian”
The Russians officially admit that they “accepted” 700,000 Ukrainian children. Ukrainians estimate that there may be even twice as many. Finding these children is almost impossible.
– The Russians change all documents from Ukrainian to Russian to children. Birth certificates, passports. They change their names, names, dates of birth. Some children change everything. They do it especially – indicates Dmytro Łubiniec, a Ukrainian Ombudsman for Children.
Ukrainian children go to forced adoption. They are placed in orphanages. Russia has a plan for them. – Russians indoctrinate them, militarize them. They want to make soldiers with our boys. If we do not recover them quickly, Russia will make them a weapon against us – says Mirosława Harczenko from the “Save Ukine” organization.
Exchange of prisoners between Ukraine and RussiaReuters
Individual children return to Ukraine
Wład in Crimea went to a camp for Ukrainian children. Then to the next one. He got a uniform and a sharp rigor. Russia calls this patriotic education.
– There are plenty of ways to break the child. In one day they can be dragged to the Russian side. We sat and talked about what had happened in Russia. What was done in Ukraine, Donetsk and Lugansk. We were punished very much for the Ukrainian views. You could go to a psychiatric hospital. I came to the isolation – says Wład.
Individual children return to Ukraine. With the help of non -governmental organizations and diplomacy of other countries, less than one and a half thousand has been recovered so far. Children return to their homeland neglected, lost and lost.
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– For the Ukrainian nation it is a very painful issue. Applies to children and the future. Time works to our disadvantage. The longer children stay in Russia, the smaller we have the chance to recover them. Not only physically, but also mentally – notes Alina Frolowa, former deputy minister of defense of Ukraine, deputy head of the think tank “center for defense strategies”.
Oxan managed to escape before the child was taken away. The girl is disabled. – Nobody would take care of her in Russia. Maybe she wouldn't even be anymore – says the woman. Włada found a mother. He spent several months in Russian institutions. What he went through will stay in it forever.
Source of the main photo: Facts of TVN