Is Russia putting snatched children up for adoption?
THE UNITED Nations yesterday launched a probe into claims snatched Ukrainian children are being put up for adoption in Russia.
Thousands of young people are thought to have been moved across the border since Vladimir Putin launched his brutal invasion on February 24.
The UN is now looking into allegations that some children who were ‘forcibly deported’ and ‘taken from orphanages’ are being offered for adoption.
In Geneva yesterday, Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: ‘We are concerned about the alleged plans of the Russian authorities to allow the movement of children from Ukraine to families in the Russian Federation, which do not appear to include steps for family reunification or respect the best interest of the child.
‘We will continue to closely follow the issue.’ In March, the UN began raising concerns about the risk of forced adoption of Ukrainian children – especially the estimated 91,000 who were living in institutions or boarding schools at the start of the war, many of which are in the country’s embattled east.
Among those kidnapped by Russian soldiers was 12-year-old Kira Obedynska, the daughter of a Ukrainian water polo champion. She was taken from Mariupol to Donetsk after her father was killed in an airstrike and then to Russia, according to local media reports.
Her family rescued her and sent her to her grandfather in Ukraine. Nearly two-thirds of Ukraine’s children are displaced due to the war, Afshan Khan – Unicef’s director for Europe and Central Asia – said yesterday.
Children have been displaced both inside and outside Ukraine after fleeing across the country’s borders as refugees, she said.
‘Children [are] forced to leave homes, friends, toys and treasured belongings, family members, facing uncertainty about the future.’
Some 277 children have been killed and 456 injured over the course of the war, according to UN figures, though Ukraine puts the death toll at 313.
Fighting has also damaged or destroyed one in six Unicef ‘safe schools’ in eastern Ukraine. Yesterday the UN’s Ukraine commission confirmed it had received allegations of rights abuses by Russian forces, but could not say whether they constituted war crimes.
‘In Bucha and Irpin, the commission has received information about arbitrary killings of civilians, destruction and looting of property, as well as attacks on civilian infrastructure, including schools,’ commission chairman Erik Mose told a press conference in Kyiv.
In Kharkiv and Sumy, the commission saw ‘the destruction of large urban areas, which is believed to be the result of aerial bombardment, shelling or missile strikes against civilian targets,’ he added.
The bloody conflict continues to rage in Ukraine’s east, where around 500 civilians are sheltering in Severodonetsk’s Azot chemical plant. The Russian defence ministry announced yesterday it would set up a humanitarian corridor for evacuations from the plant, ‘guided by the principles of humanity’.
Evacuees, however, would be transported to the city of Svatovo in the rebel-held region of Luhansk, Moscow said, urging those holding out at the plant to cease their ‘senseless resistance’. But the promises came to nothing, with both sides blaming each other for the failure to evacuate anyone.
Those hiding in the Azot plant currently have food and water but supplies are diminishing, the district’s leader said. Roman Vlasenko, head of the Severodonetsk military administration, told CNN: ‘If there is a humanitarian corridor, I believe people are ready to leave Azot.’
Capturing Severodonetsk has become a key goal, as it would open the road to Sloviansk and another major city, Kramatorsk.
Earlier this week it emerged that Brussels is planning to recommend Ukraine be designated as a candidate for EU membership. The country has been calling for more support from the bloc, but the move could risk angering the Kremlin.
‘They leave homes, friends, toys’