Russia’s brutal chief kidnapper: No Ukrainian child is safe from Putin’s angel

A horror scenario – and a sad reality for thousands of Ukrainian families. According to the Ukrainian government, 19,553 children have been kidnapped by Russia since the outbreak of war. At least 6,000 of them are subjected to an anti-Ukrainian propaganda program in 43 different re-education camps. Russian families have adopted 1,184 kidnapping victims.

The kidnapping methods are as varied as they are treacherous. Some children are sent to “recovery camps” in Crimea by pro-Russian teachers. Others are separated from their parents during filtration processes used by the Russian occupiers to search for collaborators in the conquered territories. Others are kidnapped by Russian soldiers straight from the front line.

Ukraine speaks of genocide

The systematic child abduction serves Russia’s goal of destroying Ukraine and its culture and identity, the US anti-terrorist agency Global Engagement Center writes in a new investigative report. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (45) speaks of a “genocidal tactic”. Mykola Kuleba, head of the organization Save Ukrainewhich seeks to return kidnapping victims to Ukraine, says: “Russia is stealing our children and turning them into weapons against us.”

SonntagsBlick wanted to talk to affected families. But the fear for the parents and siblings of kidnapped children is enormous. You cling to the hope that the stolen daughters and sons will one day return and you don’t want to anger the kidnappers at all.

However, they make no secret of their war crimes. Russian President Vladimir Putin (70) said in February that he was pleased that “a growing number of our citizens want to adopt Ukrainian children.” His propaganda machine presents the kidnappings as a relief effort for war orphans and neglected teenagers left behind.

Professional athletes suffer from kidnappings

The International Criminal Court was not blinded by this. In March, he issued an arrest warrant for Putin, which explicitly referred to systematic child abduction. And world politics has also woken up. French President Emmanuel Macron (45) said this week, ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, that a country that kidnaps children has no place in the competition.

Putin’s main weapon in the fight for children is Maria Lwowa-Belowa (38). The former guitar teacher and current children’s rights representative for Russia has traveled to the occupied Ukrainian territories nine times since the start of the war. She always brings lots of toys and photographers who photograph the mother of ten children (five of whom are adopted) as she smiles and comforts supposedly rescued boys and girls.

Lwowa-Belowa gives the horror a friendly touch and covers the depths of Russian kidnap terror with charm and feigned motherly love. It will be necessary to develop new education and information programs to “re-educate the children of Ukraine,” Lvowa-Belowa said shortly before the start of the new school year on September 1.

The sad case of 15-year-old Filipp Golownya

On her Telegram channel, the 38-year-old talks candidly about ‘little Anya’, who was brought to Moscow from the Ukrainian city of Izjum ‘for medical reasons’. About the alleged orphans Ilya and Sonya from Donetsk, who were flown to the Russian capital for recovery. Or about the siblings Alla (8) and Semyon (9), who were rescued from a cellar in Kupyansk. Stories about kidnappings disguised as humanitarian liberation operations, presented by a constantly smiling mother of ten children.

Lwowa-Belowa herself recently adopted a kidnapped teenager from Donbass: 15-year-old Filipp Golovnya, who, according to Ukrainian information, was kidnapped by Russian soldiers on the street in Mariupol in April 2022 and transported to Moscow via a hospital in Donetsk. She loves him very much, Lwowa-Belova whispered during a meeting with Putin.

Starting this year, Filipp, like millions of other high school students in Russia, will have to take the mandatory course ‘Initial Military Training’ and read about the evil Nazi government in Kiev in the recently published history book. He will never be able to be integrated into Ukraine again – no matter how the war on the battlefields of his homeland turns out.