Evgeniy Maloletka/AP
- Ukrainian officials say more than 121,000 children have been forcibly deported to Russia.
- Russia is changing legislation to allow for the fast-tracked adoption of these children, they allege.
- The Ukrainian Presidential Advisor on Children’s Rights accused Russia of violating UN laws.
The Ukrainian Ombudswoman for Human Rights has said that the Russian government is crafting legislation to allow Russians to adopt Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russia by military forces.
She has also stated that, so far, over 121,000 children have been “deported” by the Russian government.
In a statement on Facebook, Lyudmila Denisova said that the Russian Federation is changing legislation to allow “the accelerated procedure of adoption of children from Donbas.”
She added that Ukrainian officials have no information on the children that are allegedly being processed for adoption by Russians.
“Now the Russians, firing rockets and tanks at the homes of Ukrainian citizens, kill parents and kidnap our children in the occupied territories of East and South Ukraine,” she said.
Also writing on Facebook, the Ukrainian Presidential Advisor on Children’s Rights Herasymchuk Daria said that “Such adoption is a violation of the child’s rights. In particular, this violates the rules of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.”
The first cases of deportation to Russia were reported at the end of March, when Pyotr Andryuschenko, an assistant to Mariupol’s mayor, said that 4,000 to 4,500 Mariupol residents were “forcibly” moved, without their passports, to the Russian city of Taganrog.
On April 8, The UN stated that of the 1626 Ukrainians officially killed so far, 63 were children.
However, it believes these figures are far lower than the actual casualty toll.Ukrainian forces have previously accused the Russian military of taking children hostage and using them as human shields.
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