46 children from the Kherson regional children’s home were illegally taken to the territory of Russia. Some of the children (all children under the age of 5) have already been adopted. Ukraine managed to return only seven children from Kherson. The authorities are making efforts to return the remaining children. Qatar acts as a mediator in the negotiations on this issue. Journalists of the publication The New York Times conducted an investigation that traces the path of children and contains evidence of Russian war crimes.
Capture of Kherson
At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the director of the children’s home, Olena Kornieko, together with the staff of the institution, moved the children to the bomb shelter so that they would not be harmed as a result of the hostilities.
Later, the pastor of the Golgotha Church offered a room with better conditions for the children, and the pupils were moved there. At that time, Kherson was already occupied. The Ukrainian authorities appealed to the Russians with a demand to provide a humanitarian corridor for the evacuation of children, but this was refused.
In April, a man with the call sign “Navigator”, accompanied by armed men, ordered the children to be taken out of the church and returned to the Children’s House. It was Igor Kastyukevich, a Russian deputy, a member of Putin’s United Russia party.
After that, Russian officials and the occupation authorities of Kherson often visited the orphanage accompanied by journalists. They filmed propaganda videos about helping children. Among the “gifts” that the officials brought with them were sodas and Russian textbooks.
In May, Russia made it easier to obtain Russian citizenship. Putin signed a decree according to which the term for acquiring citizenship was reduced from 5 years to 90 days. The innovation also provided that guardians in the occupied regions of Ukraine had the right to apply for Russian citizenship on behalf of Ukrainian adopted children and orphans.
In June, director Olena Kornienko was summoned to the occupation Ministry of Health Protection of Kherson. The woman was offered to get a Russian passport and re-register the child’s home so that it would become a legal entity under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation. Tetyana Zavalska, a pediatrician who was friendly to the occupation administration, became the new director of the institution. The re-registration of the orphanage took place in the same month.
Removal of children
After the start of the offensive of the Ukrainian army in the direction of Kherson, the occupation authorities decided to take the children out of Kherson. On October 21, 2022, the pupils were taken to Crimea accompanied by the same Ihor Kastyukevich, an educator of one of the Crimean orphanages and the then Minister of Health of Crimea.
Children from the Kherson regional home were distributed between two institutions in Simferopol.
Maria Lvova-Belova, Putin’s commissioner for children’s rights, said that her office will facilitate the placement of children from Kherson in Russian foster families
In the winter of 2022, the children received Russian birth certificates and citizenship of the Russian Federation, despite the fact that the parents of some children were not deprived of parental rights. Acquisition of Russian citizenship by children is a necessary condition for their adoption in Russia.
Some of the children have already been adopted.
A war crime
Such actions by the Russians for the illegal transfer and adoption of Ukrainian children are qualified by international law as war crimes.
“Temporary evacuation of children for their safety is permissible during conflict, but it must be carried out in strict accordance with international protocols. The fact that Russia did not monitor the movement of children and did not provide mediators with access to them, in accordance with international humanitarian law, turns their evacuation into forced displacement. What Russia considers a humanitarian mission is an outright war crime,” said Stephen J. Rapp, former US ambassador to the Office of Global Criminal Justice.
On March 17 last year, the Prosecutor General of the International Criminal Court issued warrants for the arrest of Vladimir Putin and his Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova. They are accused of removing hundreds of children from Ukrainian orphanages.
How many Ukrainian children were taken to Russia?
Currently, about 19,500 children are considered illegally deported to the Russian Federation, Belarus, or territories not controlled by Ukraine.
At least seven children from the Kherson Regional Children’s Home have returned to Ukraine. Intermediaries from Qatar helped in this. The rest of the children of the orphanage are still under Russian rule.
