Report of the Russian Ombudsman for Children: More than 700 000 children have been deported from Ukraine

More than 700 000 Ukrainian children were to be deported to Russia since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine. Marija Lvova-Belova, the Russian ombudsman for children's rights, informed about such data. According to an official prosecuted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, most Ukrainian children were deported together with their parents or relatives.

The Russian ombudsman for children's rights, Marija Lvova-Belova, has published a report summarizing the activities of the Russian authorities so far in connection with the resettlement of Ukrainian children on the territory of the Russian Federation. It informs about over 700 000 children deported from the territory of occupied Ukraine, according to the Ukrainska Pravda website, citing data from the Russian media.

Fugitive spokeswoman. Deportations of Ukrainian children to Russia

According to Belova, most of the several hundred thousand children were deported to Russia with their families. The documents also mention about 1 500 cases of deportation of children from orphanages or unaccompanied children.

About 288 children from the territory of the so-called of the Donetsk People's Republic was to go to Russian foster families. The Russians also write about orphans from the so-called People's Republic of Lugansk, which, according to the report, were sent back to separatist-held territory. However, some of them, 92 children, were transported to the homes of Russian foster families. 380 children from Donbass were also forced to adopt.

The deportation of Ukrainian children is a planned action carried out by the Russian authorities since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

International fight for abducted children

On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova and Vladimir Putin, blaming them for the illegal deportation and resettlement of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

Ukrainian authorities are fighting to bring abducted children back home. As Ukrainska Pravda writes, so far they have managed to recover 386 children. The figures in official Ukrainian reports, however, are not as great as those in Belova's report. The Ukrainian side talks about 19 546 deported children. However, this number refers only to fully documented cases of illegal resettlement, i.e. those reported by a legal guardian or witness to the National Information Bureau of Ukraine.

In April, the media reported on another, fifth group of Ukrainian children from the Kherson and Kharkiv regions who had been brought to the country. Save Ukraine was involved in the campaign.