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Children of internally displaced persons take part in a patriotism class to celebrate Knowledge Day in a bomb shelter in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa on September 1. File photo provided by EPA-EFE
September 18 (UPI) – Authorities are working to resettle 125 Ukrainian children, known as “orphans”, from the occupied Donetsk province, a senior Moscow official said. Ukraine with Russian family.
“All the children brought in have been granted Russian citizenship and are being placed under Russian law,” said Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights. tell reporters.
Lvova-Belova said that Russian psychologists went to Donetsk, “performed psychological tests on the children,” and then showed them videos of prospective adoptive parents.
“Each child has the opportunity to choose from three or four families, then they communicate via video link and have already decided which family they are going to, and the psychologists take that compatibility into account,” Lvova-Belova said .
The forcible transfer of children from one group to another violates the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The U.S. Treasury Department and the U.S. State Department on Thursday A series of new sanctions announced Against 22 Russian officials, including Lvova-Belova.
The U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement that Lviva-Belova, who reported directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin, “led Russia’s efforts to deport thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia.”
“Lvova-Belova’s efforts specifically include forcing Ukrainian children into Russian homes, providing so-called ‘patriotic education’ to Ukrainian children, speeding up legislative reforms to provide Ukrainian children with citizenship of the Russian Federation, and the deliberate deportation of Ukrainian children from the Russian military,” the Treasury Department said. Say.
She is also sanctioned by Australia, the United Kingdom, Canada, the European Union and Switzerland.
Lvova-Belova slams her sanctions In comments to Russian state media Agency TASS.
“Today, I was blacklisted by the United States. The only thing that worries me is that they can’t pronounce my last name correctly,” she said.
“But seriously, it’s sad that a country that sees itself as a bastion of democracy thinks children in Donbass don’t deserve these rights. That’s why we work hard to defend these positions and help children maintain their place in a democracy The right to live. Peaceful skies, happy.”
Putin called sanctions on so-called children’s rights ombudsman “outrageous” on Friday and claimed Russia is kidnapping children from Ukraine In a comment to TASS.
“It is natural for her to evacuate children from combat operations or dangerous areas in Donbass. What’s wrong with that? We should thank her and bow to her,” Putin said. “Is it right to sanction it? It’s outrageous.”
The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine said in a statement It told Telegram on Sunday that 390 children have been killed by Russian troops since February 24.
An 11-year-old girl was killed Saturday by Russian shelling in a residential area in the city of Chugiv in Ukraine’s Kharkiv province, officials said. A 2-year-old boy was injured in a shelling in Donetsk on Saturday.
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