The Russian “authority” is actively taking out children from various parts of the occupied Luhansk oblast on so-called health excursions and vacations to the territory of the Russian Federation.The most popular places are Bashkiria, Perm krai, Tatarstan. In fact, the “rest” is another large-scale fake of Russian propagandists, because it is nothing more than the deportation of children from the territory of Ukraine. According to the data of the National Information Bureau, currently Ukraine knows about more than 19.5 thousand Ukrainian children deported to Russia. The data was collected only from the beginning of the full-scale invasion, but the Russians began to take away Ukrainian children as early as 2014 – when the Crimea and parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblast was occupied.
Russia, on the other hand, talks about 744,000 Ukrainian children on their territory. However, according to the president's commissioner for children's rights, Dariia Gerasimchuk, this figure is exaggerated.
“Summer camps”
Russian resources actively cover such “trips” of children from Luhansk oblast. On May 29, the so-called “Minister of Education and Science of the LPR” Ivan Kusov announced that during the three months of summer, 13 thousand more young residents of the Luhansk oblast will go to the Russian Federation for summer vacation. In fact, most of them might never see their parents again.
For example, on May 31, the residents of Lysychansk let another 140 children go to Tatarstan.
On the resources of the occupiers, it is reported that as part of the “Agreement between the Governments of the Republic of Tatarstan and Luhansk People's Respublic” 500 children from Rubizhne and Lysychansk will be sent to the “Saulyk” complex in Tatarstan over the summer.
“This is done in order to take Ukrainians to the Russian Federation, assimilate them and destroy their Ukrainian self-identity.All this is a sign of genocide, according to the norms of international law,” – the Center of National Resistance comments on the situation with the deportation.
Why did Russians choose children?
Children are extremely important for any nation. They are a future generation, heirs, and bearers of the culture, traditions and values of the national community. In order to destroy our identity, the Russians carry out the forced deportation of not only adults, but also children. Children are more easily influenced by propaganda because they have less life experience and critical thinking, and they are less able to analyze and recognize true information and separate it from manipulative propaganda.
The deportation of children for the aggressor country has strategic motives related to changing the demographic situation and control over the occupied regions. It is also aimed at weakening the influence of the ethnic group, strengthening the influence of Russian culture, and at the same time – strengthening control over the territory. In this way, the enemy uses children as a resource and means of struggle.
The simplification of the procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship is another proof that Russia is committing a crime and the country is trying to abduct and Russify as many children as possible as soon as possible.The decree, which was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, establishes a simplified process for granting Russian citizenship to orphans from the occupied territories of Ukraine, which are controlled by the illegal groups "DPR” and “LPR”. These norms also apply to children without parental care and disabled persons.
The Russian propagandists themselves admit that they have problems with the demographic situation.Kremlin spokesman Dmytro Peskov stated in one of his speeches that “Russia is currently in a difficult situation in terms of demographics.”The Russians are trying to change this by deporting children, in particular.
“Severe diseases”
Russians use different methods, and “vacation in the Russian Federation” is not the only way to deport children. Another way is to take children out of temporarily occupied territories under the pretext of providing medical aid, because serious “pathologies” are detected in perfectly healthy children. According to the Center for National Resistance, since the beginning of the year, 75,000 children have been examined in Donetsk oblast, and 39,000 have been deported to the Russian Federation as a result.In Luhansk oblast, 94,000 children were “examined” and 66,000 were “diagnosed with pathology”, after which they were taken away.Cases have been recorded when doctors imported from Russia demand money from parents in order not to “detect pathology.
According to the residents of Sievierodonetsk, in local hospitals during such routine examinations children were indeed diagnosed with diseases and offered to go to Russia for treatment. The Russians justified this by the fact that it is impossible to conduct even a qualitative survey in the occupied territories. In addition, according to one of the mothers, the child did not need any treatment and s/he never had any pathologies. Having a Russian passport, which is immediately issued by an expedited procedure, is also a mandatory condition for the organization of such “treatment” of children.
On May 30, 2023, 15 people from Kadiivka and Alchevsk, which were occupied in 2014, were taken to St. Petersburg for examination (it is not specified whether this list includes only children or adults). According to them, children suffer from diseases of the central nervous system.
“Adoption”
Another proof that the Russians are not going to return Ukrainian children home is their adoption into Russian families.In fact, after such actions, it is almost impossible to return the child to his native country. As of October of last year, the Russian authorities reported on 350 orphans from Donbas who were adopted by Russians. There are no recent data on forced adoption. After the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued a warrant for the arrest of Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the “Commissioner for Children's Rights under the President of the Russian Federation” on March 17, the occupiers stopped actively covering their crimes in the media.
Propaganda aimed at children
Occupational resources say that children rest during trips for health improvement and rehabilitation.Mariia Lvova-Belova, the so-called Commissioner for Children's Rights under the President of the Russian Federation, is indignant that in the world media their actions regarding forced deportation are not perceived as helping the "children of Donbas".
Such statements of the occupiers are fakes, because even in summer camps, children are forced to learn the history of the Russian Federation, in particular, special attention is paid to the so-called “Special Military Operation” in Ukraine.
For example, the exhibition “Poezd Pobedy” was organized for schoolchildren from Sievierodonetsk in Perm, where they talk about the “great Russian army”, and love for the state symbols of the Russian Federation is instilled in the camps.
As of today, the Ukrainian authorities have a clear list consisting of 16,226 children deported to the Russian Federation.The number of children and their personal data were provided to the National Information Bureau by parents, relatives, and local authorities.
The EU Commission has already allocated more than 10 million euros to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, and also identified 16 Russian officials responsible for the forced transfer of children from the temporarily occupied territories. Recently, it became known about local collaborators who contributed to the process of deportation from the occupied territories of Luhansk oblast.
The Telegram channel “Artiukh” published such a list.
"The occupied Rovenky raion of Luhansk oblast. In May-June, the occupiers plan to take 300 children aged 7 to 16 to Bashkiria, allegedly for “health improvement”. Local collaborators will help them. I am publishing the list of persons related to the deportation of Ukrainian children so that they do not relax,” the journalist said.
So far, only 366 children have been returned to Ukraine.
