In a concerning development reported by the Financial Times, it has been revealed that Russian websites featuring adoption listings have posted information about at least four Ukrainian children who were abducted during the initial months of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The children, aged between 8 and 15, are recorded as missing in Ukrainian databases. However, their Ukrainian origin is omitted from the Russian adoption sites, and their identities have been altered.
The Financial Times investigation uncovered that the children’s names and ages were changed by the abductors.
One child was given a new Russian name and age, while another’s name was modified to a Russified version.
These children have been traced to locations including Tula Oblast, near Moscow, and Orenburg Oblast, close to the Kazakh border. One child was taken to the temporarily occupied Crimea.
It is evident that these children were removed from state-run orphanages in the occupied territories of southern and eastern Ukraine.
Alona Lebedieva, speaking in the European Parliament.
“A large part of Ukrainian children were taken to Russia to summer camps, where their ‘re-education’, in particular, ‘Russification’, was conducted,” says Ukrainian Businesswoman and human rights activist Aliona Lebedieva.
“In these camps, children were forbidden to speak Ukrainian or express their Ukrainian identity in any way, instead they were taught Russian language, the Russian version of history, and came under the influence of Russian patriotic propaganda.
“Some children were even falsely told that their parents had died, so that it would become possible to change their last names to prevent them from being found later on.”
Despite having living relatives and guardians who were unaware of their whereabouts, these children were put up for adoption. Relatives and guardians have declined to comment, fearing that any statements might jeopardise the children’s safe return home.
This revelation adds a troubling dimension to the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine, highlighting the severe humanitarian issues arising from the war.
The abduction and illegal adoption of Ukrainian children not only violate international law but also represent a direct attack on the rights and identities of these young individuals.
Photo: Ukrainska Pravda
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