“Give them back to me”: the story of a Ukrainian mother whose two daughters were taken from her by the Russians

Thousands of children have been victims of the policy of forced deportation promoted by the forces russian in the Ukrainian areas under its control, and for which the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued this Friday an arrest warrant against President Vladimir Putin as the head of that campaign.

The ICC also issued an arrest warrant against Maria Alexeyevna Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, for similar accusations.

Look: Who is Maria Lvova-Belova, the Putin adviser whom the ICC ordered to arrest for the deportation of Ukrainian children

Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, international organizations have accused the Russian authorities of orchestrating the “forced displacement” of thousands of Ukrainian minors.

Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. (Sergey KARPUKHIN / SPUTNIK / AFP)

According to a report from Yale University, from “February 2022 to January 2023 there have been transferred more than 6000 young people between four months and 17 years of age”, and installed in 43 detention and re-education structures in Russia.

Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, international organizations have accused the Russian authorities of orchestrating the “forced displacement” of thousands of Ukrainian minors.

According to a report from Yale University, from “February 2022 to January 2023 there have been transferred more than 6000 young people between four months and 17 years of age”, and installed in 43 detention and re-education structures in Russia.

In all cases, “fathers and mothers have been forced, deceived with the promise of a temporary transfer or not questioned at all, and the modules were filled with fake signatures”, the report highlights.

LA NACION was able to feel this drama a month ago in the city of Kherson, occupied by Russian forces from the start of the invasion until last November, when it was recaptured by Ukrainian forces.

Over there svetlanaa 35-year-old woman, He said that he has not seen his two daughters, aged 15 and 12, Yana and Yara, since last October 7, when they theoretically went on vacation for two weeks to a campus that the Russians had offered them to do in crimeafrom which they never returned.

Svetlana told LA NACION the story of her two daughters

“During the occupation it was hard. I had no money, we were locked up at home and the girls, from September to October went to school, where they began to give only Russian programs. They also changed the currency, from the Ukrainian hryvnias to the Russian rubles, we no longer had a ukrainian connection but could only watch russian tv, receive russian propaganda, russian flags were flying and if they found a patriotic Ukrainian song, a flag or something like that on your phone, it was a problem,” he recalled. Then came the proposal.

“The girls wanted to go, they were very excited about the program. Crimea is a very beautiful place. They had their uncle there, my older brother, Vasil, who lives there, so I accepted the proposal and they left”, he said during the interview.

Desperate and already in contact with NGOs that are trying to help her get her daughters back, Svetlana said that they had told her that they were going to stay for two weeks, that they were postponing and it has now been more than five months.

Although he said that he talks to his girls on the phone every day and apparently they are in a boarding school where they go to school, eat well, treat them well, study – at least that’s what they say in controlled conversations – his great fear is that the Russians give them up for adoption to another family because they were told that they cannot be more than six months without their parents.

A group of girls at a shelter in Kherson, Ukraine, on February 16. (Ivor Prickett/The New York Times)

When the Russians withdrew from Kherson last November, Svetlana received a text message offering her to go to Russiaas did some pro-Russian Khersonians. “But I rejected that offer because I love Ukraine, it is my land and I want to live here and have my daughters returned to me.” recounted this devastated woman.

He never saw his girls again that, in a modus operandi denounced as another war crime, suffered a virtual deportation. Similar to what many other young Ukrainians suffered, now exposed to the international community by the ICC.

By Elisabetta Pique

Source: Elcomercio