Russia's Children's Rights Commissioner Confirms Illegal Deportation of 380 Ukrainian Children From Mariupol

The Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, whose arrest warrant was issued by the International Criminal Court for the deportation of Ukrainian children, visited the temporarily occupied Mariupol, where she confirmed the deportation of 380 children from the city to Russia to "substitute families".

This is reported by the Mariupol City Council.

In a video shared by the Mariupol City Council, Lvova-Belova states that all these children have now come of age and are currently studying at colleges and universities across Russia.

“This is yet another cynical statement in the style of Russian propaganda. In 2022, Russian forces besieged Mariupol, systematically destroying the city and blocking the establishment of humanitarian corridors for the safe evacuation of civilians,” the Mariupol City Council wrote.

The city council noted that the deported children had, in reality, lost their loved ones during the shelling and bombings by Russian forces. While many of these children still have family members residing in Ukraine, the Russian authorities refuse to return them to their relatives.

Ukraine is working to return all deported children. At the beginning of May, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, accused the Red Cross’s lack of reaction to Russia’s crimes of “ostrich mentality”, saying that the Russian Red Cross directly participates in the process of illegally changing the identification of Ukrainian children.