REPORTING. War in Ukraine: deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia “is a tragedy for the whole world”

According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, at least 19,546 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia, where they are being held against the wishes of their families and against their own. If this figure illustrates proven cases, the real figures undoubtedly go well beyond since tens of thousands of Ukrainian families live under occupation and without being able to communicate with the outside world.

It is for this supposed crime against humanity that the International Criminal Court opened an investigation and issued an arrest warrant against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova. In Ukraine, authorities and families are racing against time to try to recover these children, in particular through the “Bring our kids back” campaign.

“J'saw these child torture chambers with my own eyes”

Dmyto Loubinets, the Commissioner for Human Rights, deplores: “the international community has not yet understood the seriousness of the situation, because I do not yet see any mechanism for prevention or reaction to such aggression, but groups of countries, such as France or Canada and the United States, support us in our efforts. The fact remains that we must still and always explain to the UN, to the International Red Cross, the urgency of this situation.”

Indeed, since the start of the large-scale invasion, the international institutions theoretically responsible for monitoring respect for international law in Russia have not obtained access to children held in Russia. Dmytro Loubinets details why it is crucial for Ukraine to get these children back: “Can you imagine that there are torture camps against the civilian population, including children? During the liberation of Kherson (in November 2022), I saw these torture chambers for children with my own eyes. “It’s not just a tragedy for Ukraine, it’s a tragedy for the whole world.”

Only a few hundred children returned

To get an idea of ​​what these minors experience, you have to ask the few (a few hundred) who have been able to return from Russia. At the Children's Rights Protection Center in Kyiv, Valeria, 17, from Severodonetsk, now occupied by the Russians, came to testify. She managed to return to Ukraine after being forced to leave her family to continue her education in the aggressor country.

Often, the occupation authorities put forward the argument of security so that families accept a separation. Enrolled in a high school in a town in southwest Russia, she says: “my host family kept telling me that my loved ones had forgotten me, that they were no longer interested in me. When I arrived at high school, I was insulted by Russians who immediately noticed that I was Ukrainian.”

Once the minors are on Russian territory, it is extremely complicated for their families to assert their rights: The Russian administration changes their names, confiscates their identity papers, and finally demands documents to be presented on site while Ukrainian families have no way of traveling to Russia on their own, due to the war.

The ordeal of Ukrainian families living under Russian occupation

In temporary accommodation of the NGO Save Ukraine, which also works to repatriate children and their families, Victoria, a nurse from Nova Kakhovka, in the occupied part of Kherson, explains the ordeal of families living under occupation. She managed to escape with her ten-year-old son, and her eldest, 17, had already managed to reach Ukraine last year. Under occupation, her son could not go to school, nor openly speak Ukrainian. Often, families like Victoria's stay so as not to abandon the family home and their parents, living or dead.

She recounts their escape: “We held out for two years, until our house was bombed. Thank God we weren't there at the time, but we lost everything. My son and I were among the last to be able to pass through the (only) checkpoint (still open this summer) between Russia and Ukraine. “.

This checkpoint located on the border between the Kursk and Sumy regions has been closed since the start of Ukrainian operations in the Russian region this summer. After passing through “filtration camps” where civilians are interrogated or tortured, few arrive at the checkpoint – if they get a pass, they have to walk several kilometers in a gray zone until arrival in Ukraine.

“My daughter learned Ukrainian online illegally”

Anja, a schoolteacher also from the Kherson region, took the same route as Victoria after holding out as long as possible under occupation, refusing to take a Russian passport for herself and her children aged 7 and 14. Refusing to comply with bureaucratic demands in occupied territory means being deprived of all social and medical assistance, but Anja did not give in: “during these two years, my daughter learned Ukrainian online clandestinely. We would have been in big trouble if this had been found out, and since school is compulsory from age 7 in the Russian system, we decided to leave. »

For these families, the ordeal is over, but for thousands of others, the Russian war against Ukraine is synonymous with deportation, a ban on speaking their language, and family separation.