(Moscow) The Russian commissioner for children, Maria Lvova-Belova, targeted by an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, said on Tuesday that she was ready to send deported children back to Ukraine, if their families so requested. .
Ukrainian authorities accuse Russia of having “abducted” more than 16,000 children from Ukraine since the offensive began a year ago.
Moscow, for its part, claims to have “saved” these children from the fighting and to have put in place procedures to reunite them with their families.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Ms. Lvova-Belova assured that she had not been contacted by “any representative of the Ukrainian authorities” about the children deported since the start of the conflict and invited the parents to write her an email.
“Write to me […] to find your child,” she said.
According to a report from his office released on Tuesday, 16 children from nine families have been reunited with their relatives living in Ukraine or elsewhere since March 29.
The Russian commissioner for children, however, once again refused on Tuesday to publish the full list of names of Ukrainian children deported to Russia.
According to the report, 380 Ukrainian orphans have been placed in foster care in Russia, including 22 minors found abandoned in Mariupol, a city in southern Ukraine devastated by a siege by the Russian army last year.
Adopted children received Russian citizenship while retaining their original citizenship.
According to Maria Lvova-Belova, a teenager taken to Russia from Mariupol was arrested at the Belarusian border while trying to return to Ukraine.
However, she said he was “drawn into Ukrainian territory through manipulation and threats” by several people she called “agents”.
The ICC in March issued a historic arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, finding them responsible for the “war crime of illegal deportation” of Ukrainian minors.
