Thousands of Ukrainian children transferred to Russia for adoption, New York Times investigation finds
Since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, on February 24, thousands of Ukrainian children have been transferred to Russia to be adopted there, before becoming Russian citizens, explains the American daily New York Times in an investigation.
The newspaper was able to speak with children, their relatives and foster families. Russian state television regularly shows politicians offering teddy bears to new arrivals, presented as abandoned children and extracted from the war by Moscow.
But these mass transfers of children are a potential war crime, says the New York Times, whether these children are orphans or not. If many of them do indeed come from orphanages and homes, according to the daily, the Russian and pro-Russian authorities have also taken children whose parents or legal guardians are claiming.
This adoption policy responds to a more comprehensive strategy that aims to treat Ukraine as an integral part of Russia and to justify the invasion of the country as a noble cause, according to the New York Times. The newspaper adds that the Russian government thus uses children – especially, and mainly, the most sick, poor and vulnerable – to serve its propaganda campaign and present Russia as a savior.
Among the children interviewed in the article, 14-year-old Ania fled the medical facility she was staying at in Mariupol to treat her tuberculosis. The bus that was supposed to take her to Zaporizhia was diverted to a Russian checkpoint, according to the account of children also present in the vehicle, before it was sent to Donetsk, the eponymous capital of the administrative region occupied by the Russians since 2014 and recently annexed by the Russian Federation. According to the American daily, the self-proclaimed pro-Russian republic is at the heart of Mr. Putin’s adoption policy.
In her flight, Ania was unable to take her sketchbook, in which she kept her mother’s telephone number. She now lives with a host family near Moscow, who she says treats her well. Soon it will officially become Russian. ” I do not want. My friends and family are not here”regrets the young girl, who has communicated several times with the American journalist by messages and voice memos.
the New York Times also met a resident of Salekhard, in Siberia. She adopted four Ukrainian children, aged 6 to 17 and all from Donetsk Oblast. “Our family is like a little Russia. Russia hosted four territories and [ma] family, four children », she claims. She awaits the arrival of a fifth Ukrainian and considers them all to be entirely Russian: “We don’t take what isn’t already ours. »
To convince the oldest children, Moscow is promising them an exceptional life in Russia, reports the American newspaper. “We were told, ‘If you want gadgets or clothes, let us know. We will buy everything from you. If you want you can leave [vers la Russie] and relax. We will show you Moscow. And if your parents abandoned you, it’s because they don’t need you. We will help you” »reports Timofeï, 17 years old.
The precise number of children sent to Russia for adoption is not known. The Russian authorities refused to respond to the New York Times. kyiv, for its part, does not keep a precise count, but understands that these children number in the thousands. In April, Moscow announced that more than 2,000 children had arrived in Russia, the majority of them from orphanages and homes in territories occupied since 2014.