“Humanitarian act”, translated from Russian, means the forced displacement of Ukrainian children for the purpose of assimilation and identity and political re-education. “Humanitarian act”, translated from Russian, means genocidal policy.
Evgueniia’s parents, having lived under Russian occupation in Kherson from March to November 2022, were forced to transfer their daughter to a school under the control of the occupiers so that she could follow the Russian curriculum. If they refused, the little girl risked being sent to a re-education camp. If Evgueniia had been an orphan, this is what would have happened. The story of my 14-year-old cousin is just one example of Russia’s systematic kidnapping schemes against Ukrainian children.
The figures speak for themselves: more than 16,000 cases of deportation have been formalized and documented by various organizations, but estimates reach more than one million displaced children.
A systematic war crime
On March 15, 2023, a report by the UN Commission on Human Rights confirmed these facts: the transfer and deportation of children to occupied Ukrainian territories or to Russian territory violate international law and represent a war crime.
SPUTNIK PHOTO, SUPPLIED BY REUTERS
Maria Lvova-Belova, commissioner for children’s rights, talks to President Vladimir Putin at the Novo-Ogaryovo state residence on the outskirts of Moscow on February 16.
The accused ? Vladimir Putin, Russian President, and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights – both now under arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court. This was entered in December 2022 to document these schemes aimed at “Russifying”, “denazifying” and “de-Ukrainizing” Ukrainian minors, whose ages vary from 4 months to 17 years.
The judges in The Hague specify that these kidnappings continue at this very moment, and are accelerating as Ukraine prepares for a counter-offensive to liberate the territories occupied by the Russians.
How do war criminals proceed? Three narratives are promoted by Russia in order to systematically deport Ukrainian children: the “evacuation” of orphanages located in Ukrainian territories occupied by Russian forces, the transfer of children to “holiday camps”, the displacement to supposedly “medical purposes”.
What is particularly striking is that, unlike other abuses committed by the Russians in Ukraine, the programs for the removal of children are neither denied nor concealed, on the contrary. In May 2022, Putin passed a presidential decree accelerating the process of obtaining Russian citizenship for children deported from Ukraine. Lvova-Belova boasted, on February 16, of “ [savoir] now what it is to be a mother of a child from Donbass”.
Kidnapped children are featured in propaganda videos, and shown as trophies at concerts celebrating the invasion.
Wills of extermination
Beyond their displacement, the objective is greater: to re-educate these Ukrainian children, by forcing their assimilation into Russian society. In the camps, there is systematic pro-Russian education, which includes military activities, school curriculum, visits to Russian memorial sites, constant patriotic discourse. All levels of government are involved in these processes similar to those carried out by the Nazis in Poland during the Second World War.
These policies, which can easily be described as genocidal, reveal the true face of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. This is not mere territorial expansionism, but the eradication of the identity of an entire nation.
With extermination objectives so clear, the question of negotiation no longer arises. How can one negotiate with an aggressor country? How to compromise with a war criminal?
Although Russia does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court, the message of the arrest warrant is strong. Ukraine’s Attorney General Andriy Kostin says The Hague’s decision will certainly impact the ambitions of some to discuss: “Leaders will think twice before shaking hands with him or sitting down with Putin in the negotiation table. »