“Dad, if you don’t pick us up in three days, they’ll adopt us… .”
Twelve-year-old Matbi sent the last SOS to his father over the receiver. Matvi was taken last year along with her younger siblings to a boarding school on the outskirts of Moscow, more than 950 kilometers from Mariupol.
After being separated for 90 days, Matbi was able to return to her father’s arms with the help of a volunteer group. But it was nothing short of a miracle, and it is estimated that thousands of Ukrainian children are forcibly taken to Russia.
On the 24th (local time), ABC News of the United States reported on the reality of children forcibly taken by Russian soldiers through conversations with children in occupied territories.
Children in areas invaded by Russia could not return home even after Ukraine recaptured the land. This is because they take their children with them when the Russian army retreats.
◇ About 6,000 children abducted in Russia are forced into pro-Russian educational facilities
According to reports, the process of taking the children was no different from ‘kidnapping’ wearing the mask of ‘contract’. Threatened with guns and knives by the Russian occupation forces, Ukrainian parents were forced to sign that “in some cases, the right to protect children will be transferred to an anonymous representative.”
The abducted children are taken to a ‘re-education and adoption facility’ in mainland Russia. The U.S. State Department-backed Conflict Observatory said in a report on the 14th that at least 6,000 children of Ukrainian origin were forcibly detained in the facility.
Both the forced transfer of children and the refusal to return children to their parents may constitute violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.
Evidence of children being abducted also appeared in satellite images. The Conflict Observatory and the Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) at Yale University analyzed ultra-high-resolution satellite images since the outbreak of war in February last year to identify 43 facilities housing Ukrainian children.
Under the name of ‘vacation camp’, it is known that political brainwashing is conducted here to make children pro-Russian.
HRL said that 78% of its facilities are running propaganda “integrated programs,” including Russian-focused academic, cultural, patriotic and military education.
Two of the facilities were found to have forcibly adopted more than 20 children into Russian families.
◇ “Child abduction and forced deportation are intended for genocide”… destruction of identity
What does children have to do with war to abduct them? Experts point out that the abduction of children or forcible deportation of children in a war situation goes beyond simple psychological warfare.
Lawyer Wayne Jodash, who investigates war crimes in Ukraine in Kieu, told the ABC that “forced deportation of children is an act that is accepted as evidence of genocidal intent,” and that it did not kill, but in fact it was like genocide.
According to Article 2 of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide (CPPCG), the forcible removal of children for the purpose of destroying all or part of a national, ethnic, racial or religious group constitutes genocide.
The act of cutting off the roots of children by destroying the customs and traditions of a community is equivalent to taking their lives.
Alexandra Romantsova of the Civic Freedom Center in Kieu told The Washington Post (WP) that “Russia even changed its adoption laws to hand over children to Russian families as soon as possible.”
“Children (adopted into Russian families) are deprived of the opportunity to grow up as Ukrainians without knowing the truth,” he said. “This is one of the ways Russia destroys Ukrainian identity.”
◇ International community launches investigation into Russian child abduction
It is currently not known exactly how many Ukrainian children Russia has abducted. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) did not know how many of the estimated 3 million Ukrainian refugees known to be living in Russia were children.
According to a VOA report, a senior Ukrainian government official said that as many as 14,000 children were abducted by Russian forces. CNBC reported that the US Biden administration estimates that 260,000 children have been deported to Russia.
The European Union (EU) and the United Nations have jointly responded to this serious situation in which even the current situation has not been properly counted.
On the 27th, the EU Commission announced that it would begin preparing countermeasures against the abduction of children in Ukraine, led by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.
“This is a serious social problem, a tragedy and a crime,” said EU Commission Deputy Spokesperson Dana Spinant.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.