The Red Cross finds itself in hot water after its representative in Belarus, Dmitry Shevtsov, admitted on Wednesday on local television to having participated in the deportation of several hundred children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to this neighboring country and ally of Russia.
These mass kidnappings, orchestrated in times of conflict for “humanitarian reasons” according to Moscow and Minsk, are considered a “war crime” by international justice.
Through the voice of its Foreign Minister, Dmytro KulebaKiev has also called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant against this official of the international organization, stating that he has just “publicly confessed to the crime of illegal deportation of children”.
Reached in The Hague, the Netherlands, by The dutyan official of the international tribunal was not able to indicate Thursday what follow-up the prosecutors would give to this request, in the immediate future.
Interviewed on Wednesday by state television Belarus 1 from the city of Lysytchansk, in the Ukrainian region under Russian occupation of Luhansk, the secretary general of the Belarusian Red Cross said he was “scandalized” by accusations that his country is responsible for the deportation of children, reports the independent Polish network Belsat TV. Dmitry Shevtsov added that he does nothing more than allow Ukrainian children “to forget the horrors of war”, to “rest”, to “feel that they are on the island of happiness”, and this, while respecting the values of the organization. He insisted that “the Belarusian Red Cross has taken, is taking and will take an active part” in these movements of children to Belarus, and this, to “improve their health”.
The Belarusian Red Cross, the country’s largest charity, admitted last June that it had “saved” more than 700 Ukrainian children removed from areas occupied by Kremlin forces, according to the state-run Belta news agency, as part of a project jointly funded by Moscow and Minsk.
THE Kyiv Post reports that on a previous trip to a war zone, Red Cross representative Dmitry Shevtsov was photographed wearing camouflage clothing that featured the “Z” symbol of Russian soldiers and pro-Kremlin activists. It is a “violation of the charter of the Red Cross, which requires that the members of the organization remain neutral”, underlines the Ukrainian daily.
Investigation and dissociation
On Wednesday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) sought to distance itself from its secretary general in the country of Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Vladimir Putin, claiming not to have been informed of this “visit to Luhansk and Donetsk”, in occupied Ukraine, in the last days. By means of a press release, she assures in passing that she has not “participated in any activity, including with children”.
The IFRC adds that it has expressed its “serious concerns” to the leaders of its Minsk office and opened an investigation “into the allegations of breach of integrity” which the interview with its representative in Belarus has just brought to light. It also says it takes “very seriously the actions of National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies which are in contradiction with its humanitarian mission, its fundamental principles and its policies”.
Last March, the ICC decided to issue an arrest warrant against the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, for his alleged involvement in the abduction of thousands of children in Ukraine and their illegal deportation to Russia, since the outbreak of his war of invasion against Ukraine. The Russian commissioner for the rights of the child, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, was also summoned to appear before the international court, for her participation in this vast program of abduction of children sent to rehabilitation camps in Russia. According to Yale University’s Conflict Observatory, it could be a cultural reconditioning project, part of Putin’s plan to make Ukraine disappear to prevent it from drawing closer to the West and better assimilating it into Russia.
Ironically, the Kremlin admitted its guilt by boasting of having indeed supervised the transfer of millions of Ukrainian civilians to its territory since February 2022, including more than 720,000 children, according to figures carried by the Russian media. This migration would respond to “humanitarian reasons”, claims Moscow, and would serve to protect orphans and abandoned children in conflict zones.
At the end of June, the former Belarusian Minister of Culture, Pavel Latushka, and member of the opposition in exile, indicated that he had transmitted to the ICC documents proving that 2,100 Ukrainian children had been illegally deported from 15 Ukrainian cities under Russian control to Belarus. Lukashenko’s dictatorial regime approved these kidnappings, he said.
Placed on the grill by its representative in Belarus, the IFRC admitted on Wednesday that this story risked “affecting confidence in [son] work in support of communities in need” in the territories occupied by Russia, wherever these communities are on the side of the front line.
“It is essential that all parts of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement maintain their independence from governments and arms owners,” she added.