Ukraine has returned total of 522 abducted children - Lubinets
So far, Ukraine has managed to return 522 children. 387 of them were deported to Russia, the rest to the so-called "Luhansk People’s Republic" and Belarus.
This was stated by the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets during a briefing at the international conference on human rights "Freedom or Fear", Censor.NET reports citing Ukrinform.
"Taking into account the last return of children, which took place yesterday, we managed to return 522 Ukrainian children, of whom 387 were illegally deported to the territory of the Russian Federation," Lubinets said.
According to him, the Ombudsman's Office receives information that Russians are drawing up new lists of children to be taken to the territory of the Russian Federation almost every day.
"And we have seen a new trend, particularly in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, that they are not trying to take children to the territory of the Russian Federation immediately. They are trying to take them from Donetsk and Luhansk regions to the territory of Belarus, and then to the territory of the Russian Federation," Lubinets said.
In his opinion, this may be a new tactic of the Russian Federation to include Belarus and self-proclaimed President Alexander Lukashenko in the list of those responsible for the deportation of children.
"Or it may be a new toolkit to prevent us from proving that it is the Russian Federation that deports Ukrainian children, because somehow moving them through the territory of Belarus (makes it as difficult as possible for us to officially confirm these facts)," Lubinets said.
Answering a question about the case of Ukrainian girl Marharyta Prokopenko being "adopted" by Russia, he said that this was the first officially recorded fact of Russians changing the surname of a Ukrainian child.
"Unofficially, we have a lot of information that the Russian Federation often changes the names, surnames and dates of birth (of Ukrainian children - Ed.)," Lubinets said.
