Orphans and children deprived of parental care became a cover for close relatives of Kyiv officials to illegally travel abroad and avoid mobilization: Lubinets
Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, in his Telegram channel published information that employees of the Ombudsman’s Office accidentally became “investigators”. As a result of the monitoring visits, they discovered that the officials of the Service for Children and Families of the City of Kyiv and the Center for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation of Children No. 1 of the City of Kyiv sent their close relatives to accompany the children abroad.
According to him, in March 2022, 68 orphans and children deprived of parental care, accompanied by 20 adults, were evacuated from the Center for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation of Children No. 1 in Kyiv to the former youth camp in the German city of Wuppertal. However, when representatives of the Office of the Ombudsman visited the camp this year, they were not allowed to enter the territory. It turned out that there were no Ukrainian chaperones on the spot, and only German workers were taking care of the children.
Further checks revealed that only 55 children had actually arrived in Wuppertal instead of the claimed 68. The fate of 13 children remains unknown as the monitoring team was unable to ascertain their whereabouts.
Ombudsman Lubinets noted that among the escorts there were people who had nothing to do with this field and were registered for work only a day before the evacuation. Some of them were not officially employed at all. In particular, among the accompanying persons were close relatives of the heads of the Service for Children and Families of the city of Kyiv and the Center for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation of Children No. 1.
Lubinets also emphasized that these escorts left Ukraine and did not return. The leaders continued to visit Wuppertal under the guise of business trips. According to him, reports on the results of these business trips were either not compiled at all, or were written on a carbon copy.
“What we found out was shocking: the management does not have information about the situation in the institution! The Service and the Center do not have copies of documents or any documents about the conditions of children’s stay under the care of the German side.
We managed to find out: among the accompanying persons during the evacuation, in official orders, there were people who have no relation to this field, and only a day before they became employees of institutions, and some were never employed at all. The most interesting thing: among these people is a close relative of the head of the Service for Children and Families of the city of Kyiv and a close relative of the head of the Center for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation of Children No. 1 in the city of Kyiv. Among the accompanying persons there are also four more persons whose reasons for leaving require additional study.
Each of the accompanying men resigned from their positions after being out of state and none of them currently work for these authorities. At most, they did not return to Ukraine. This fact suggests that it was all “We reveal the details. In March 2022, when active hostilities continued near Kyiv, 68 pupils of the Center for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation of Children No. 1 of the city of Kyiv, accompanied by 20 people, were evacuated to the former youth camp of the city of Wuppertal in Germany. These pupils are orphans, children deprived of parental care, and children in difficult life circumstances.
This year, during monitoring visits, my representatives visited institutions abroad where Ukrainian children are staying. We also visited the above-mentioned camp. Employees of the Office of the Ombudsman were not allowed there. The reason is that there were no escorts from Ukraine on the territory, and the children are exclusively under the care of the German side.
Perhaps that is why one of the managers does not have a report on such business trips, and the other one has written “on paper” in the literal sense of the word: it does not contain any information about the problems of children, the establishment of German guardianship, the dismissal of Ukrainian escorts, and from year to year in the report on a third of the page you can see only a change in one number: 2022 to 2023.
Only in 2024, our Office found out that the pupils of the Center for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation of Children No. 1 in the city of Kyiv were left without a Ukrainian escort. Access to these children must now be sought from the German party acting under their law.
Therefore, I have already sent the relevant letters to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the National Police, the Ministry of Social Policy, the National Social Service Service, the KMDA, where I noted all the facts discovered. I look forward to a quick and impartial investigation.
After such a case, we will more carefully check documents related to foreign business trips… After all, we get the impression that such cases are not unique! Planned action!”, – Lubinets wrote.
