The Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Children's Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, believes that after the ICC's decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Children's Ombudsman, Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian Federation will begin to return previously abducted children to Ukraine on a permanent basis.
"I cannot publicly say many details, but I will say it as a person who directly takes part in this. After the arrest warrant was issued, we received signals that may indicate that the Russian Federation will start returning Ukrainian children on a systemic basis," Lubinets said during the telethon.
The Ukrainian ombudsman noted that the Russian suspects - Putin and Lvova-Belova - did everything they could so that the court in The Hague would still issue a warrant for their arrest. For example, the latter publicly announced the "adoption" of a child abducted by the Russian occupiers from Mariupol. Moreover, she also emphasized that she was able to do this thanks to the "decree" of the Russian president "on simplifying the acquisition of Russian citizenship by orphans from Ukraine", which Putin signed in May 2022.
Lubinets said that currently Ukraine has recorded 16,228 cases of deportation of Ukrainian children by Russia. Verification is in progress.
"Actually, this is a small part of the total number of children who were deported by the Russian Federation. It may be hundreds of thousands (…) Our children are treated cruelly, separate "re-education" camps are created, where the most patriotic children are subjected to torture and psychological pressure," said the ombudsman, adding that these facts were recorded not only by Ukraine, but also by a number of international organizations. "We are working out every fact and we have positive examples of how we return our children."
Lubinets appealed to all the relatives and close of children whom the occupiers took to the territory of the Russian Federation. He urged calling the hotline at 0-800-501-720.
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