Over 20,000 Ukrainian сhildren deported to Russia – ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets

Source: Dmytro Lubintes

Russia has abducted more than 20,000 children from Ukraine, and the risk of deportation is still high for another 1.5 million children now living in occupied territories, said  human right ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets on Wednesday.

He argued that Russian officials alter the personal data of these kidnapped children to make it harder to locate and reunite them with their families.

“They even send our children to so-called ‘re-education camps’ where they are brainwashed with Russian propaganda. Just imagine, our children are being forced to deny their Ukrainian heritage,” Lubinets said at an event held by the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children.

Russian goverment practices often see children from orphanages in the Kherson region deported to Russia with being adopted without any consent or denied necessary medical care.

Lubinets said Ukraine will continue its efforts to find the deported children to help bring them home.

“The main issue right now is that Russia is deliberately slowing down the process of returning our children,” Lubinets added.

Earlier reports from British intelligence confirmed that at least 11,000 Ukrainian children are currently being held in 43 so-called “re-education camps” across Russia, thousands of kilometers away from their homes.