Russia illegally removed more than two thousand children deprived of parental care from Ukraine - Vereshchuk
The Ukrainian authorities are trying to return children deprived of parental care, who were illegally taken to the aggressor state after the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation.
Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk told about this during a trip to Kharkiv region, Censor.NET informs with reference to Suspilne.
According to intelligence data in Vereshchuk's possession, on September 1, the occupiers illegally transported more than 2,000 children deprived of parental care to the Russian Federation.
"What we know from intelligence sources, we are talking about 2,161 children. This is what we know as of September 1. These are children deprived of parental care, we call them "status children". It is very difficult to say how many parental children. By the way, we have already returned 55 of them," Vereshchuk said.
"There is no definitive figure, this is only approximate information and facts. We check them, group them and immediately contact the Russian Federation. We consider - and international law allows us to do this - as the forcible removal of Ukrainian children to the territory of the aggressor. And it is obvious that this is a crime. And it is obvious that he will have qualifications and will be prosecuted. But now our task is to find those children, their location and demand their return," the deputy prime minister explained.
Russia is trying to arrange guardianship for some of the Ukrainian children.
"We have data that Russia prepares some of them for certain foster families, as they call it, some forms of adoption, I want to state once again: this is absolutely unacceptable. We did not allow adoption as a state and provide accommodation in some form our children on the territory of the aggressor state. We demand the return of our children, we appeal to the international community to do everything to make Russia pay, that is, to strengthen sanctions, for the fact that today our children are illegally in the territory of the Russian Federation," Vereshchuk said.
During the negotiations regarding the return of the children back to Ukraine, the Ukrainian authorities turn to the Russian Federation and provide the names of the children and information about their guardians.
"The guardian goes to the territory of Russia, it takes about 10 days, he or she has to go there and pick up the child and take him out. We accompany all this, the Ministry, I personally control it, and in this way we managed to save 55 children," she said Vereshchuk.
