On Tuesday, Russia at the UN denied accusations by Ukraine, international justice and non-governmental organizations that it deported thousands of Ukrainian children to its territory, AFP reports.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on Monday appealed to Moscow to provide an explanation regarding claims that such deportations took place, AFP and Agerpres write.
The Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Protection of Russia Oleksiy Vovtsenko, the head of his country’s delegation, replied that “since February 2022, the Russian Federation is not involved in the deportation of Ukrainian citizens to its territory.” He also stated that “approximately three million residents of Ukraine, including children, have been accepted in the Russian Federation,” where “the majority of children came with their families or guardians; they were placed in temporary shelters or with their relatives.”
The official added that checks are ongoing regarding the situation of “more than 5,000 children.”
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and announced the annexation of five Ukrainian regions: Crimea in 2014, Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhya and Kherson respectively in 2022.
Kyiv estimates that about 20,000 children were forcibly deported to Russia, of which only about 400 have been repatriated by the authorities so far.
What Russia says about the thousands of children evacuated from orphanages and homes: “They came accompanied by directors and staff”
Last year, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Child Protection Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for the “deportation” of thousands of Ukrainian children.
Russia strongly denies all these accusations and claims that “the resettlement of evacuated children is carried out primarily at their request and with their consent,” says the document sent last year to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child.
Regarding the “evacuation” from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, Vovchenko said that about 2,000 children from orphanages and homes, “accompanied by the directors and staff” of the respective centers, had arrived in Russia.
He accused the Ukrainian authorities of not taking care of the situation and health of these children earlier.
To the committee’s question, he answered that it is currently impossible to determine how many Russian children lost their parents in the war in Ukraine.
- In Ukraine, it was confirmed that Sergei Mironov, who is close to Putin, kidnapped a Ukrainian girl and changed her identity and place of birth
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Source: Hot News
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