Russia stealing Ukraine’s kids, says UN

The UN has cited ‘credible accusations’ that Moscow’s forces have forcibly taken Ukrainian children to Russia.

Vladimir Putin addresses the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

The UN has cited “credible accusations” that Moscow’s forces have forcibly taken Ukrainian children to Russia, while Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the West of benefiting from the eased grain blockade.

Kyiv meanwhile said its forces had recaptured territory in a counter-offensive southeast of Kharkiv that experts say could threaten Russian supply lines.

As Europe girded for a winter with diminished energy supplies, the European Commission proposed a series of measures to control skyrocketing prices and punish Moscow for invading Ukraine, including a price cap on Russian gas. “We are facing an extraordinary situation, because Russia is an unreliable supplier and is manipulating our energy markets,” warned EC president Ursula von der Leyen. “Our unity and our solidarity will ­ensure that we will prevail.”

In Washington and at a UN Security Council meeting, Moscow was accused of forcing large numbers of Ukrainian non-combatants into detention camps and even prisons via a Kremlin-directed “filtration” program, and removing children from the war zone to hand over to adoptive parents in Russia.

“We are concerned that the Russian authorities have adopted a simplified procedure to grant Russian citizenship to children without parental care, and that these children would be eligible for adoption by Russian families,” Ilze Brands Kehris, ­assistant UN secretary-general for human rights, told the Security Council. Some Ukrainians judged as close to their government or military have been tortured and sent to Russian penal colonies and other detention centres, she said.

The US State Department said Mr Putin’s office was ­directly managing the relocation of Ukrainians into Russia, and doing it as part of a plan to annex occupied territory. “Russia has systematically used the practice of forced deportations previously, and the fear and misery it evokes for people forced to live under the Kremlin’s control are hard to overstate,” said deputy spokesman Vedant Patel.

But Russian UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya called the allegations unfounded and said “filtration” was registering Ukrainians willingly fleeing the war to Russia. “As far as we can judge similar procedures are applied in Poland and other countries of the European Union against Ukrainian refugees,” he told the council.

Mr Putin accused Europe of taking advantage of Russia’s lifting of a blocked on Ukraine grain exports to help itself while poor countries were being deprived of essential food. Official data collected by a joint centre in Istanbul monitoring implementation of the July grain export agreement showed 30 per cent of the grain reaching low and lower-middle income countries.

Data compiled as of Wednesday showed Turkey receiving 20 per cent of the grain followed by Spain (15 per cent) and Egypt (10 per cent). But much of the grain reaching Turkey and some other destinations is then re-sold under agreements not monitored by the Istanbul centre.

“Almost all the grain exported from Ukraine is sent not to the poorest developing countries, but to EU countries,” Mr Putin alleged. European countries were acting as “colonialists”, he said, “once again simply ­deceived developing countries”. “Maybe we should think about limiting the export of grain and other produce along this route?”

A US official dismissed Mr Putin’s remarks, noting that some grain sent to Europe was then processed for poor nations.

Late on Wednesday Ukrain­ian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Kyiv troops had recaptured several settlements in the Kharkiv region. The US Institute for the Study of War said the Ukraine counter-attack was near Balakliya and probably drove Russian forces back to the north of the Severskyi Donets and Serednya Balakliika rivers.

It appeared Ukraine forces also recaptured Verbivka and that Russian forces may have ­destroyed bridges to prevent Ukrainian fighters from pursuing them, ISW said. “Russia’s ­deployment of forces from Kharkiv and eastern Ukraine to Ukraine’s south is likely ­enabling Ukrainian counter-attacks of opportunity,” it said.

AFP