We Must Act To Protect Ukrainian Children

The last months have seen allegations of Russia abducting Ukrainian children and subjecting them to illegal adoptions in Russia. In March 2022, less than a month after Putin attacked Ukraine, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported that Russian forces have illegally removed 2,389 Ukrainian children from Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts to Russia. In April 2022, Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner, Lyudmila Denysova, tweeted that more than 121,000 children have been forcibly deported to Russia over the weeks. This number includes orphaned children and those who have one or both parents. Denysova added that Russia was “mak[ing] changes to the legislation to organize the accelerated procedure of adoption of children from Donbas.”

According to Denysova, “Russia repeats the 2014 scenario when it was taken out of the occupied Crimea of Ukrainian children so-called ‘train of hope’ for their adoption.” As the evidence of such practices has been growing, in June 2022, the U.K. Government imposed the Magnitsky sanctions on the Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for her alleged involvement in the forced transfer and adoption of Ukrainian children. As the statement indicated, “Lvova-Belova has been accused of enabling 2,000 vulnerable children [to be] violently taken from the Luhansk and Donetsk regions and orchestrating a new policy to facilitate their forced adoptions in Russia.” The numbers are said to only have increased over time. In August 2022, CBS reported on the case of two boys, Ivan and Maxim, who were captured by Russian troops from their orphanage in Mariupol. They were held together with 20 other children, including children as young as eight. Ivan and Maxim were ultimately rescued by their guardian from their orphanage, Anton Bilay. Many more children need rescuing.

Putin is not hiding the crime and pledged to help to smoothen the process of adoption of Ukrainian children. In a video circulating online, Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner is said to be telling Putin about the “big hearts” of people in Russia who “are lining up to take the children.” Make no mistake. The adoptions are illegal. Also, removing children from their country, their community, and their culture is not in the best interest of these children. The best interest of these children is not taken into consideration at all. The practice aims to strip them off their Ukrainian identity.

Indeed, researchers from the Newline Institute and Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, when analyzing the issue of the serious risk of genocide in Ukraine, considered the reports of abductions of Ukrainian children. Their report concludes that “the large-scale transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-controlled territory can amount to “[f]orcibly transferring children of the group to another group,” under Art. II (e) of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and part of Putin’s attempt to destroy Ukrainian identity and the national group as such. While it may be too early to talk about clear evidence of Putin’s atrocities amounting to the legal definition of genocide, as the allegations of genocide continue to be discussed, the practice of forcible transfer of children and illegal adoptions must be fully considered and addressed, and the perpetrators brought to justice. Unfortunately, perpetrators are rarely held accountable for atrocities committed against children. This is true across all conflicts.

As the war rages on, children will continue to pay the price for Putin’s deluded ambitions. As the war rages on, it is crucial to ensure that the international community supports Ukraine in protecting their children from a litany of crimes that target children, especially children in orphanages who are particularly vulnerable in the circumstances. These crimes include killings, physical and psychological harm and abuse, human trafficking, abductions, illegal adoptions, and much more. Such assistance is more urgent now than ever, although long overdue. No child should go missing and be used in Putin’s propaganda.