Russia violates “fundamental principles of child protection” in wartime by issuing Russian passports to Ukrainian children and giving them up for adoption in Russia,” Filippo Grandi, head of the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), told Reuters.
Grandi said his agency cannot estimate the number of children who have been issued Russian passports or given up for adoption in Russia because access to the country is extremely limited. “Access was quite rare, sporadic and not unhindered, if you know what I mean,” he said.
Speaking at the UNHCR office in Kyiv after a six-day tour of Ukraine, Grandi said Volodymyr Zelensky asked the agency to “do more” to help Ukrainian children from the occupied regions.
“Giving them citizenship or adoption is contrary to the fundamental principles of protecting children in war. This is what is happening in Russia and should not happen,” the head of the UNHCR stressed.
Zelensky, speaking after meeting with Grandi on Wednesday, January 25, called for the creation of mechanisms for the “protection and return” of Ukrainian children and adults deported to Russia, as well as for the punishment of those responsible for their forced resettlement.
“Our society really needs very clear answers to whether we can work together to develop a mechanism for the return of our citizens. First of all, I would like to say about children who are not able to free themselves from captivity on their own. And I consider changing citizenship from Ukrainian to Russian a policy of genocide and the same captivity,” the President of Ukraine said.
In my country blocked
present tense
According to the Children’s Ombudsman of Ukraine Daria Gerasimchuk, about 14,000 children were illegally deported to Russia from the occupied territories of Ukraine, while only 125 children have been returned to the country so far.
The Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War prohibits the transfer of children from the territory of hostilities to the territory of the aggressor state. They should be provided with humanitarian corridors to the safe zone of their home country or to a neutral country.
According to human rights activists, forcibly deported children from Ukraine were being prepared for adoption on the territory of the Russian Federation. So, at the end of May last year, Vladimir Putin signed a decree on a simplified procedure for obtaining Russian citizenship by orphans from the “DPR”, “LPR” and Ukraine.
In December 2022, the President of the Russian Federation approved the procedure for filing applications for renunciation of Ukrainian citizenship and obtaining Russian citizenship by residents of the annexed regions, which specifically spells out the rules on recognizing a child under 14 years of age as a citizen of Russia.
According to the document, the Russian authorities can recognize as citizens of the Russian Federation children taken from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia, based on the application of “guardians or an authorized representative of an educational, medical, social or other organization.”
Guardians or authorized representatives of these organizations may also apply for the child to renounce Ukrainian citizenship. Children from the occupied territories who have become Russian citizens in this way will become more difficult to return to Ukraine, since, according to the legislation of the Russian Federation, only a guardian gives permission to leave Russia for a minor who is under 16 years old.
In September last year, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Verkhovna Rada Dmitry Lubinets said that more than seven thousand Ukrainian children were illegally taken to Russia.
“Russia is doing everything to prevent our children from returning to us, even simplified their legislation on adoption,” Lubinets said. direct definition of genocide.”
