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Russia planned to remove hundreds of thousands of children throughout Ukraine. At least from those territories that she wanted to occupy after a full-scale invasion in February 2022. And this program began to work immediately from the first days of the war. The Russians clearly planned in advance programs of resettlement, deportation, and extermination of the population in the occupied Ukrainian territories. Advisor to the Chairman of the Office of the President of Ukraine (OPU) Mykhailo Podolyak said this in an interview with the FREEDOM TV channel.
He emphasized that the Russians did not start the war in order to return to the mainstream of international law. And one cannot count on dialogue with Russia on the issue of the return of deported children.
“The Russian Federation will definitely not make any progress in this regard. In this war, they had clearly thought-out scenario plans regarding the destruction of the territory inhabited by citizens of Ukraine. So that these territories are completely destroyed from the point of view of understanding who we are and what we are – that is, in the aspect of identity, the definition of what Ukraine is. For this purpose, extensive programs of resettlement, deportation, and extermination of the population in the occupied territories were invented. The Russian Federation program for the removal of children provided for the removal of hundreds of thousands of children throughout Ukraine. At least in those territories that they planned to occupy. And this program began to work from the first days of the war,” Podolyak noted.
He recalled that today almost 20 thousand cases of abduction of Ukrainian children have been legally recorded. We managed to return less than half a thousand.
“The Russian Federation stated that they took up to 700 thousand children from the territory of Ukraine. I think this number is exaggerated because Russia has always had a certain stupidity in their propaganda, and they thought it would be seen as a big cheer in the early months of the war. Like, look, we are saving Ukrainian children from “Nazis,” noted the guest on the broadcast.
He emphasized that the process of returning children is very difficult. But today it is perceived completely differently by the global community.
“This problem is considered simply incredible in the 21st century. Democratic countries definitely do not accept such methods or words that Russia says to justify its genocidal crimes. And these countries are talking about this more actively on diplomatic, information, and other platforms,” Podolyak said.
He is convinced that Russia will gradually come to the need for legal responsibility for this type of crime.
“We want all this to be thoroughly investigated, so that not only Putin, [commissioner for children’s affairs under the President of the Russian Federation] Lvova-Belova, but also those people who were behind this large-scale crime are sitting in the dock. First of all, this is a department headed by the Deputy Head of the Russian Presidential Administration Sergei Kiriyenko. It was his department that was involved in the large-scale planning of this crime. I wish all these people would sit. And why is Russia trying with all its might to prevent its defeat? This is only because they understand the legal consequences for all these types of crimes,” Podolyak concluded.
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