The Lie That ‘Russia Kidnapped Ukrainian Children’ Exposed at UN
April 6, 2023, 2022 (EIRNS)—Great Britain and the United States blocked the webcast transmission of the Arria-formula meeting of UN Security Council members on “Children and Armed Conflict: Ukrainian Crisis. Evacuating Children from Conflict Zone,” which was keynoted by Maria Lvova-Belova, Presidential Commissioner of the Russian Federation on Children’s Rights. Mrs. Lvova-Belova, along with Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been indicted by the International Criminal Court, for removing orphans from the Donetsk, Lugansk, and Zaporozhye war zones.
There’s no wonder, the Anglo-Americans can’t have their reckless lies exposed. Since the Arria-formula hearing is informal, the Russian mission livestreamed the event on its social media. The transcript of Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia’s opening remarks to the hearing include links to testimony by emigrant Ukrainian mothers or their attorney in Germany, Spain and Portugal, whose children were forcibly removed by the host governments and placed in orphanages or foster homes. The mothers are rarely, if ever, allowed to see their children, and are being pressured to give their children up for adoption.
Lvova-Belova testified that of the more than 5 million refugees whom Russia has taken in since February 2022, there have been around 700,000 children. All have come with their parents, relatives, or legal guardians, except for 2,000 who were in orphanages in the Donbass republics, subject to Ukrainian artillery. Now that Russia has established control and stability over major areas of Donbass, about 1,300 of them have been returned to their Donbass orphanages; another 400 or so whose orphanages in Donbass are still unsafe, remain in orphanages in Russia; finally, there are 358 orphans in foster homes.
Lvova-Belova explained that, to date, there are 16 Ukrainian children staying in children’s health camps in Crimea and the Krasnodar region. “Parents of some of those children are in the European Union now. We have submitted the information to the International Committee of the Red Cross, and we do very much hope for their assistance in reuniting” the children with their families. “Everybody demands that parents and children be reunited.... However, we do not see a single fact or a single document of the Ukrainian side, except the statements released on social networks and in the media by the country’s leadership.” She repeated multiple times that the Russian authorities are unable to contact Ukrainian authorities under Kiev law, and therefore contacts must take place via third parties, which increases how much time it takes to reunite families.
Earlier her office had criticized Ukrainian authorities for not evacuating the orphans from war zones. However, the reality is that nine years of Kiev regime shelling into Donetsk and Lugansk republics has been the major factor in leaving Donbass children orphans. She pointed out that in the last year, Western weapons provided to Kiev have increased the area the regime can strike with artillery, including non-military civilian areas, where children should be safe, but are no longer.
