Information regarding 386 Ukrainian children adopted in Russia confirmed

Ukraine has confirmed information that Russians have adopted 386 Ukrainian children who were deported to the aggressor country.

Source: Dmytro Lubinets, Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, on air during the 24/7 national joint newscast

Quote: "We have confirmed figures. 386 children – it is an established fact that they were placed in Russian families, and the adoption procedure has either begun, or been completed."

Details: The commissioner emphasised that terminology is very important in this matter, as there is a difference between adoption and temporary guardianship.

Lubinets pointed out again that Russian Children's Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, stated that she had adopted a child from Ukraine herself. In other words, she admitted that she had committed a crime. However, after receiving an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, Lvova-Belova began to say that she had not adopted a Ukrainian child, but had supposedly taken him under temporary protection, as a temporary guardianship.

"Adoption of children from countries that are in a state of international armed conflict – this is what war is called, according to international humanitarian law – is prohibited. That is why these terms are very important to us, it is very important for us to establish the legal fact that Russians are adopting Ukrainian children. Then this clearly falls under the signs of the war crime of genocide, which should be treated as a war crime committed by the highest military and political leadership of the Russian Federation. And this is what we are doing," Lubinets stressed.

Commenting on 11 children illegally detained by Russian invaders in the temporarily occupied part of Kherson Oblast being brought back home, Lubinets said that this had been a process lasting several months and expressed hope that there would soon be more such positive news.

Background:

• In June, it was reported that the Russian authorities had placed 1,184 children deported from the occupied territories of Ukraine under "temporary guardianship" – three times more than the occupiers had publicly stated. 
• In July, Russian Children's Rights Presidential Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova reported that since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, the occupiers had taken more than 700,000 Ukrainian children to Russia.

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