How many Ukrainian children have been deported by Russia since the start of the conflict a year ago? And above all, what has become of them? If it is difficult to know how many minors are concerned, the evidence of what could appear at the beginning as rumors accumulates. Nicolas Tenzer, a specialist in strategic and international issues, does not hesitate to describe this policy as “hostage-taking” totally assumed by Moscow. For Anne Le Huérou, lecturer at Paris Nanterre University and specialist in Russia, the primary objective is to make them “good little Russian soldiers”.
A planned process
The kidnappings began in the first days of the large-scale invasion of Ukraine “and we know they were prepared in advance”, says Anastasiia Marushevska, co-founder of the Ukrainian NGO PR Army And Where are our people?. “The Russian authorities prepared carefully for this process, devised ways to expel the population, built temporary accommodation facilities for the deportees and sought funding for their upkeep,” she said. .
But cases of forced displacement of children have been reported since well before February 2022. According to the document communicated to the International Criminal Court by criminal lawyer Emmanuel Daoud and the association For Ukraine, their freedom and oursthat 20 minutes consulted, as early as 2014 during the invasion of Crimea and part of Donbass, Russian forces “undertook to forcibly transfer or forcibly deport populations legally established in these occupied territories”. Among these residents, “Ukrainian children were already targeted by the Russian authorities at the time,” the document states.
Between 200,000 and 700,000 children deported
According to several estimates, press articles, NGO reports and demographic data, Russia forcibly abducted between 200,000 and 700,000 Ukrainian children to at least 57 regions of the Russian Federation. But only 16,207 children have been formally identified by the Ukrainian authorities. The youngest are only a few months old, the oldest 17 years old. For its part, Moscow boasts of having “saved”, according to its narrative of “denazification of Ukraine”, some 733,000 children. These Russian data in free access “can however be inflated to serve the propaganda of the Kremlin”, warns Bertrand Lambolez, vice-president of the association For Ukraine, their freedom and ours.
On the side of kyiv, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Ukrainian Parliament Dmytro Lubinets evokes the figure of approximately 150,000 children kidnapped by the Russians, reports The Ukrainian Week. “If having an exact figure is complicated, we count in all cases hundreds of thousands”, slice Bertrand Lambolez. “There can’t be a single number because we don’t have access to deportation sites inside Russia and there are no international representatives there. In addition, many Ukrainian regions are still occupied and we don’t know how many children are being deported at the moment,” says Anastasiia Marushevska.
Forced adoptions
Among them, there are orphans who have lost their parents because of the war or who have been “kidnapped by foster families”, explains Nicolas Tenzer. Moreover, “ cases of children deported while their parents were imprisoned by the Russians have been recorded”, reports Anastasiia Marushevska. This is particularly what happens in the “filtration camps” where the people “evacuated” from besieged cities, such as Mariupol or Kherson, are taken by the Russian authorities. There, residents are questioned about their political views, their fingerprints taken, IDs seized and cellphones confiscated, reports Human Rights Watch.
Once in Russia, they are either adopted by Russian families or sent to “education” camps. Moreover, Moscow makes no secret of having recourse to these “adoptions”: Vladimir Putin’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, affirmed in September on her Telegram account that “the Russians have already adopted 350 orphans from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and more than 1,000 children are awaiting adoption”. She herself boasted of having adopted a Ukrainian child. The Russian president even signed decrees this summer aimed at making it easier for Ukrainians to obtain Russian citizenship and adopt them. In addition to the means of pressure that these kidnappings represent with regard to the Ukrainian population, they also serve to “repopulate the country” which suffers from serious demographic problems, specifies Nicolas Tenzer.
Russian rehabilitation
The latter also explains to its subscribers that children placed in “re-education” centers have “daily Russian language and history” lessons. “In Russia, children are settled in hotels, camps, recreation centers, health centers and shelters,” explains Anastasiia Marushevska. Those who are of age are automatically enrolled in educational institutions and study Russian curricula. During the walks, the pupils listen to the Russian national anthem. »
A study by Yale University’s Human Rights Research Institute estimates that at least 6,000 Ukrainian children have passed through one of 43 identified camps in Russia since the start of the war. “The report documents the systematic relocation, re-education and, in some cases, fostering or adoption of Ukrainian children by Russia,” says the Yale School of Public Health.
Some children were able to return to their country, reunite with their families. But so little. According to the association For Ukraine, their freedom and ours, less than 200 have been recovered. Their return depends on the Russian Federation. Which, by the way, “is a recognition of the crime”, underlines Nicolas Tenzer.
