"Nazis" and "sex trafficking": How Russians lie to justify abduction of Ukrainian children

Russia uses three main messages to justify the abduction of Ukrainian children: "Russia is a paradise", "Ukraine does not care about its children" and "the West exploits children".

This is stated in the report of the Centre for Countering Disinformation (CCD) of the National Security and Defence Council, which was published on 1 June, the International Children's Day.

After the start of the full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, children have become a tool for the Russian propaganda machine, but informational influence campaigns under the theme of child abduction have been taking place since 2014.

The agency has investigated how the Russians justify their crimes.

"In order to create the idea that deported children are better off in Russia than they were in Ukraine, Russian propaganda creates a positive image of Russia's actions. Hostile information resources actively disseminated the statements by the main persons involved in the deportation of children, which reflect the main narrative that ‘Russia is a real paradise for children’.

The above-mentioned narrative was formed during the occupation of Crimea in 2014 and at the beginning of the war in Donbas," the CCD said.

Collage by Centre for Countering Disinformation

Since 24 February 2022, Russians have been using information and influence campaigns in three main areas:

• Russia is a real "paradise" for children (the first message with this theme dates from 24 February 2022).
• Ukraine does not care about its own children (26 February 2022).
• The West is using Ukrainian children for its own purposes (29 April 2022).

When it comes to the first narrative, Russia spreads the following false propaganda messages:

• Russia has created safe conditions for the evacuation of children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine;
• Ukrainian children who were taken to Russia receive the best conditions for life: adoption by trustworthy Russian families, the best education, medicine, the opportunity to visit study groups, clothes, food, etc.;
• children from Ukraine are given the opportunity to undergo rehabilitation and recreation in the best sanatoriums in Russia and Crimea;
• deported Ukrainian children can continue to learn Ukrainian;
• after the completion of the "special operation", children will be able to come back to the "liberated new territories" of Russia if their parents or close relatives remain there;
• at their own request, children can voluntarily obtain Russian citizenship.

In the case of the second narrative, the occupiers spread the following messages:

• Ukraine is not interested in the fate of children who ended up in the temporarily occupied territories;
• during active military operations, the Armed Forces of Ukraine used children as human shields;
• Ukraine’s Armed Forces of Ukraine are attacking children on their native land;
• Ukraine does not need to bring children to their homeland;
• Russia takes children out of hot spots so that they do not suffer from Ukrainian attacks.

Russia involved Vasily Nebenzya, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN, to spread disinformation within the framework of the described campaign.

On 20 March 2023, he said that "Russia is ready to bring back the children transported from Ukraine when it is safe there".

The diplomat added that the children were allegedly " moved because of the danger posed by combat actions".

On 5 May 2023, on the air of the Russia 24 television channel, Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian Commissioner for Human Rights, stated that there were no official requests from Kyiv to bring back Ukrainian children.

Her speech was immediately picked up by Russian Telegram channels and the media, spreading this statement as much as possible and creating the illusion that Ukraine does not care about its children.

"For the greater effect of the second disinformation campaign, the Russian side is trying to emphasise that the President's Office allegedly did not officially respond to the Kremlin's actions because the Ukrainian authorities are not interested in the security of their people and they are not going to protect their people," the CCD added.

In the case of the third narrative, the following propaganda messages should be distinguished:

• Ukrainian children who have left for European countries become victims of trafficking;
• Ukrainian children who have left for European countries become objects of sexual exploitation;
• pedophilia is widespread in the West;
• children are taken from Ukrainian refugees;
• The West is killing Ukrainian children by supplying Ukrainians with weapons.

In the spring of 2022, the Russian media began to spread the narrative that Ukrainian children who had left for Europe had become victims of trafficking and sexual exploitation.

In particular, referring to an English-language article published on the Aol platform, pro-Kremlin Telegram channels tried to discredit the British Homes for Ukraine sponsorship programme for Ukrainians, spreading messages about the risks of human trafficking and sex slavery.

"It should be noted that the exploitation of children during the war is one of the most terrible violations of children’s rights in accordance with the provisions of the Geneva Convention.

By spreading the above statements, the Kremlin's propaganda wants to create an image of Ukraine as a ‘terrorist state’," the propaganda researchers say.

People involved in the abduction of Ukrainian children are such officials as Maria Lvova-Belova, the Commissioner for Children’s Rights of the Russian Federation; Prime Minister Mishustin; Minister of Education Kravtsov; Minister of Health Murashko; Tatyana Moskalkova, Commissioner for Human Rights of the Russian Federation; and others.

In addition, disinformation is actively promoted by Maria Zakharova, the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry; the Russian-imposed ombudsmen in the occupied territories of Donetsk Oblast (Daria Morozova) and Luhansk Oblast (Victoria Serdyukova); as well as Vasily Nebenzya. 

In particular, Serdyukova stated that "Ukrainians are Nazis" who kill civilians, while Zakharova emphasised that children are sexually exploited in the West.

Maria Lvova-Belova actively spreads disinformation and justifies the forced deportation of Ukrainian children, and her statement is spread by Russian propagandist Solovyov.

She claimed that the Ukrainian side did not evacuate children from Mariupol and Bakhmut; the Russians took the children out with the consent of their parents, and the children's ombudsman of Ukraine allegedly did nothing to bring the children home.

In addition, Lvova-Belova, whom the International Criminal Court wants to arrest for war crimes (genocide), has repeatedly distributed fake messages related to the narrative "the Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen commit war crimes".

The Russian official lied that during the active hostilities in Mariupol, the Ukrainian Armed Forces "hid behind children" and "put them on the windows from where sniper fire was carried out".

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