Kidnapping and re-education of Ukrainian children: Council of Europe speaks of genocide

Clear words from the Council of Europe in Strasbourg: According to Europe’s oldest human rights organization, to which 46 countries belong, the mass abduction of Ukrainian children to Russia bears signs of genocide.

There are indications that the transfer of the children from Russia was “systematically planned and organized” with the aim of “Russification” and “erasing every connection and feature of their Ukrainian identity,” according to a resolution passed Friday.

Earlier, Ukrainian First Lady Olena Selenska described in moving words some of the individual plights of children who were abducted to Russia and only brought back by their relatives with great luck and effort.

For example, there is 12-year-old Sashko, who, together with his mother, survived the siege of the city of Mariupol for weeks. When the Russians took the city, the two were separated without even being able to say goodbye. The soldiers then told the boy that his mother had abandoned him and didn’t want him anymore and that he was now being adopted by a Russian family. By chance, Sashko managed to get hold of a mobile phone and contacted his grandmother, after which he was eventually rescued.

There are a total of 361 such happy cases of children who were able to be returned to Ukraine. According to Selenska, there are still 19,390 children in Russian captivity. “There have been many horrific war crimes committed by Russia against Ukraine, but this one is special because it targets the most vulnerable and vulnerable,” said the Ukrainian first lady.

43 re-education camps, but in reality probably much more

But what exactly happens to the Ukrainian children who are brought to Russia by the thousands? The Organization for Security and Co-operation (OSCE) in Vienna is considering this issue this week. A report from Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Labs offers some insights.

In Russia, the girls and boys in camps are subjected to harsh political-patriotic and sometimes military indoctrination. According to one of the authors of the report, it is about breaking and exchanging an identity. The report identifies a total of 43 such re-education camps, from Western Russia to the Far East. In reality, however, there could be many more. Independent investigation is impossible in Russia and the occupied territories.

The monstrosity of the alleged crime has not stopped Russian officials from speaking out publicly. On the contrary: President Vladimir Putin and his child protection officer Maria Lvova-Belova boast about their alleged charity: according to Lvova-Belova, she herself has ten Ukrainian children under her care.

Last but not least, Russia is also trying to create faits accomplis with concrete legislative steps: easier access to Russian citizenship for children from Ukraine and changes in adoption law. Once adopted or assigned to foster care, children can be difficult to locate, according to the Yale report. These children will never be found again.

‘A well-orchestrated chaos’, is what one author calls the situation. It mainly serves to blur the tracking. Western diplomats at the OSCE also confirm this: if there were lists of names or camps or even direct orders, the genocidal intent would be demonstrable.

In mid-March, the International Criminal Court in The Hague officially issued a punishment order against Putin and his child protection officer. According to the international organization, the abduction of Ukrainian children is officially a war crime. (aargauerzeitung.ch)