Russians place more than 1,000 children deported from Ukraine under guardianship
Russian authorities have placed under "preliminary guardianship" 1,184 children deported from the occupied territories of Ukraine – it is three times as many as the occupiers have publicly stated.
Source: Vazhnye Istorii, a Russian media outlet
Details: According to the media outlet, since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia has deported between 4,400 and 19,500 children from Ukraine. Some of them have already been placed in the care of Russian families.
At the end of 2022, Russian Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova said that 380 children taken from Ukraine had been placed in families. She gave the same number in the spring and summer of 2023.
However, according to Vazhnye Istorii, the number of children placed in foster care may be at least three times higher than Lvova-Belova claims.
According to the 2022 report on the activities of the Rostov Oblast government, 1,184 children who arrived "without legal representatives from the territories of Donbas and Ukraine" were placed under preliminary care.
The outlet has noted that this wording makes it unclear what status these children have. This figure may include orphans who lived in orphanages in the occupied territories or lost their parents during the war. In this case, Lvova-Belova underestimated the number of Ukrainian children placed in Russian families.
This figure could also include children who went to Russia with other relatives (grandmother, aunt, etc.) while their parents remained in the occupied territories.
Children from children's institutions who were taken to Russia en masse can be taken into account here. The director of the institution usually takes custody of such children.
The outlet has also noted that not all of the 1,184 children may have remained in Rostov Oblast, as the Ministry of Education's report states that only 534 children were placed under preliminary guardianship in this region in 2022. This may indicate that the remaining children were taken to other regions.
The Rostov Oblast Ministry of Education refused to answer questions from Vazhnye Istorii.
However, the outlet has studied open sources and data from the Ministry of Education and established the whereabouts of 290 children from Ukraine in 23 regions of Russia.
Most of the children – 47 people – are in Novosibirsk Oblast. At least 30 children are in families in Moscow Oblast, 25 in Kaluga Oblast, and 24 in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast. Another 21 deported children live in families in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and 20 in Leningrad Oblast.
Less than 20 children were taken to other regions.
The news also mentioned Penza, Rostov, Kostroma and Novgorod oblasts as regions where deported Ukrainian children went, but it is unknown how many children ended up there.
The outlet has drawn attention to the fact that all of these children were probably placed in Russian families between April and October 2022. Since November, news about the mass placement of deported children in foster care has ceased to appear, with only isolated cases reported in the media.
In October 2022, Lvova-Belova claimed that about 1,000 more children from the so-called "DPR and LPR" [self-proclaimed and non-recognised Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic – ed.] were to be transferred to Russian families, but there was no news about this, and the official continued to repeat the same figure of 380 Ukrainian children in families in Russia.
Earlier, Vazhnye Istorii reported that Russia could deport more than 2,500 orphans from Ukraine.
These are children whom the Russian authorities have entered into the federal database of orphans, where anyone can look at the profiles of children and take them into care. The profiles do not say where these children are from.
The outlet has found three of these children in the Nizhny Novgorod Oblast database, and several dozen more were sent to the Far North. In children's institutions, these children are visited by Russian soldiers who tell them that they are "removing fascism from Ukrainian land".
The Russian occupiers are in no hurry to find Ukrainian relatives of deported children. According to Lvova-Belova herself, by the end of March 2023, only 16 children deported to Russia were able to reunite with their families in Ukraine and other countries.
Background:
- In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova over the deportation of Ukrainian children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia.
- Russian Children's Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova has publicly stated that Philip, a teenager from seized Mariupol who was "adopted" by her, has been influenced by Ukrainian "propaganda" but already calls her "mum".
- In Russia, abducted Ukrainian children are being bullied, insulted and beaten for disobedience, according to Daria Herasymchuk, the Ukrainian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights.
- Russian invaders are trying to re-educate Ukrainian children. For example, in Mariupol, the occupiers are forcing students to line up, listen to the anthem of the terrorist state and raise the Russian flag.
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