Russian charged with war crimes defends Ukrainian child abduction at UN

New York: Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, who is being sought for war crimes for deporting children from Ukraine, told a UN meeting on Wednesday that they were taken for their safety and Moscow was co-ordinating with international organisations to return them to their families.

Ambassadors from Western countries boycotted the informal UN Security Council meeting, sending low-level diplomats instead. And diplomats from the United States, Britain, Albania and Malta walked out when Maria Lvova-Belova started to address the meeting by video link.

Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova is accused of deporting children from Ukraine to Russia.Credit: AP

The International Criminal Court last month issued an arrest warrant for her and Russian President Vladimir Putin, accusing them of abducting children from Ukraine.

Russia, which holds the rotating presidency of the Security Council this month, called Wednesday’s meeting to counter what it claims is disinformation about the Ukrainian children.

US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told reporters before the meeting that the United States strongly opposed the briefing and joined the UK in blocking the United Nations from outside broadcast of the meeting.

Lvova-Belova should not be allowed “to have an international podium to spread disinformation and to try to defend her horrible actions that are taking place in Ukraine,” Thomas-Greenfield said.

The Associated Press reported on Lvova-Belova’s involvement in the abduction of Ukrainian orphans in October. The AP investigation found that the open effort to put Ukrainian children up for adoption in Russia was well underway. Ukrainian officials claimed at the time that nearly 8000 children had been deported to Russia, but the exact number was difficult to determine.

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia opened the meeting saying its aim was “to unmask the blatant double-standards of the West”.

“Part of this propaganda campaign is the hushing up by the West of the fact that in European countries Ukrainian refugees are having their children taken away,” he said. Videos were then shown of some women claiming their children had been taken in Europe.

Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova at the Kremlin.Credit: AP

Nebenzia also insisted that contrary to Western claims there have been “no forced adoptions.” He said some Ukrainian children are in foster care and claimed there were “no obstacles” for them to maintain contact with their families in Ukraine.

The AP investigation found Russian officials deported Ukrainian children to Russia without their parents’ consent, lied to them that they weren’t wanted by their parents, used them for propaganda, and gave them Russian families and citizenship.

Since February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, Lvova-Belova said Russia has taken in more than 5 million Ukrainians, including 700,000 children — all with parents, relatives or legal guardians except for 2000 from orphanages in the eastern Donbas.

To date, she said, about 1300 children have been returned to their orphanages, 400 were sent to Russian orphanages and 358 were placed in foster homes.

A UN Security Council meeting.Credit: UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

Lvova-Belova said there has been no official communication with Ukrainian authorities about the children, but she said her office has met with representatives of UNICEF, Refugees International and the International Committee of the Red Cross and provided all available information about the children. She said Russia was coordinating with the Red Cross on reunification.

Sarah Sheffer, vice president for strategic outreach at Refugees International, denied this. She said Russia has not consulted with her organisation about the Ukrainian children.

AP

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