Most of the children who were successfully returned from the Russian Federation are psychologically traumatized
Russia’s illegal deportation of Ukrainian children is an attempt to steal the country’s future, it leaves children with deep psychological trauma, said the founder and general director of the charity organization Save Ukraine Mykola Kuleba, speaking on the sidelines of the Peace Summit in Switzerland.
“They build their strategy on deception, depriving children of the memory of their origin and the genocide of the Ukrainian nation.” Kuleba said during the conference.
He told the story of an 8-year-old girl who was sent to a Russian camp to, he said, eradicate her Ukrainian identity.
“Children are forbidden to speak Ukrainian and display Ukrainian symbols. They are severely punished if they resist the performance of the Russian national anthem”, – noted Mykola Kuleba.
He also said that the Russian authorities change the names and dates of birth of children.
According to Mr. Kuleba, the Save Ukraine organization has already managed to bring home 373 children, including 88 orphans. Many young Ukrainians who have returned have signs of psychological trauma.
In particular, the head of the charity organization told about a five-year-old boy who saw his father being beaten by occupation soldiers. This caused the child to have nightmares and a constant feeling of fear.
According to official data, since the beginning of the full-scale war, about 20,000 children have been taken to Russia or to Russian-occupied territory without the consent of their families or guardians. The Ukrainian authorities call the abduction of minors a war crime, which corresponds to the definition of genocide proposed by the UN.
Mykola Kuleba called for intensifying international efforts to gather information about abducted children and return them home.
Moscow declares that it takes only socially vulnerable children from the war zone.
It will be recalled that in March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, and his Commissioner for Children, Maria Lvova-Belova, on charges of war crimes related to the abduction of Ukrainian children.
