Mourners gather as the funeral cortege of Ukraine activist and serviceman Mykola Kokhanivsky who was killed in battle near Kharkiv, passes outside St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery in Kyiv on July 16, 2024, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Sergei SUPINSKY / AFP)
Ukrainian authorities want the South African government and the ANC to expedite their engagement with Russia to release an estimated 20 000 Ukrainian children.
This was revealed by Kateryna Rashevska, legal expert at the Ukrainian nongovernmental organisation Regional Centre for Human Rights, in an interview with The Citizen during her weeklong visit to South Africa.
She alleged Russia had abducted and forced some of the children into military training to become soldiers to fight against Ukraine in the ongoing war.
Rashevska said the boys and girls, who are between two months and 17 years old, were first taken from Crimea in 2014 and from other areas by Russia during the current war that began in February 2022.
The children were allegedly moved and put on a programme for adoption by Russian citizens, their identities and citizenships allegedly changed to Russian and some sent to military camps and trained as soldiers.
“Many of these children who were taken in 2014 are now Russian teenagers and they don’t know about their origin and they don’t understand they are Ukrainian children because they have been adopted and raised as Russian children,” she said.
Rashevska was in the country to lobby President Cyril Ramaphosa, Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola and the ANC to use their influence and proximity to Russia and talk them into releasing the children.
She said they had confidence in South Africa’s ability to find a solution to the problem, especially after Ramaphosa promised to intervene to assist in the return of the children.
However, the Russian embassy in South Africa dismissed her claim.
“Russia did not abduct anyone, it evacuated people from unsafe territories, areas where active hostilities take place. As a matter of fact, our country has harboured more Ukrainian refugees than any other country taken alone,” an embassy statement said.
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The embassy cited the Joint Coordination Headquarters for Humanitarian Response of the Russian Federation’s report that since the start of the special military operation, some 4.8 million people, including over 700 000 children, had been evacuated from dangerous areas of Ukraine and new regions under Russia.
“Most of the evacuated children arrived in Russia with their families, accompanied by either parents or guardians and custodians. They were accommodated in temporary facilities, or whenever possible, rented accommodation,” the embassy said.
But Rashevska had said in every place that was invaded and occupied by Russia, children were deported to Russia daily and in the process some lost their parents.
Some were separated from their parents after the parents were detained in “filtration” points and some arrested after being accused of spying, disloyalty and other activities.
“Everyone in these Russian occupied territories has to speak Russian language and must show that they are loyal to the Russian Federation, including by joining the Russian army,” Rashevska said.
“The worst thing is that the Russia Federation is enforcing Russian citizenship on these children.”
She said some of the children, who turned 18 while in Russian custody, were drafted into the Russian army, some taken to specific camps on military rehabilitation programmes.
In the camps the kids were allegedly made to salute Russian military personnel.
“They are militarised, they are indoctrinated including how to hate Ukraine. About 90% of Ukrainian children deported to Russian since the beginning of the large-scale invasion remain under Russian control,” Rashevska said.
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The Russian embassy said in April Russian children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova had the first face-to-face meeting with Ukrainian counterparts, facilitated by Qatar, on the children’s reunification with their families.
“At this meeting, Russian and Ukrainian sides recorded and verified lists of such children. At that time, there were 29 Ukrainian children who lived in Russia and wished to reunite with their families in Ukraine, and 11 Russian children who lived in Ukraine willing to return to their families in Russia,” the embassy said.
“Lvova-Belova emphasised that Qatar was a witness to the fact that there was no talk of thousands of ‘abducted’ children. These figures are a myth.
“The Ukrainian side didn’t even try to confirm this statement with documents, never provided facts, lists of the 20 000 allegedly ‘abducted’ kids or children’s legal representatives willing to find them.”
The Russian Federation did not have any “programme for the adoption of children from the war zones”, the embassy emphasised.
“Information about thousands of adopted children is not true.”
The embassy also said there were no re-education camps in Russia, including camps for children.
Department of international relations and cooperation spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said he was unaware of Rashevska’s lobbying but any lobbying was futile since South Africa was already involved in efforts to negotiate for the return of the Ukrainian children.
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