Clotilde Dumay
While in Kherson the Ukrainian authorities have discovered several torture chambers, human rights associations also accuse Moscow of having deported Ukrainian children to Russia. kyiv has identified nearly 11,000 unaccompanied minors displaced from their country of origin.
“The people who took my son were Russian soldiers. We never talked about it. They just took him away.” Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, many similar testimonies have flourished with human rights associations. These, with the help of the authorities, have identified nearly 11,000 unaccompanied minors brought to Russia by force. This is the case of Olena’s family. Seriously injured in a bombardment in Izium at the end of April, Olena’s son was evacuated by the Russian army to Moscow. She only found it months later, by chance.
Abductions with a specific objective
And this family is far from being the only one according to Sylvie Rollet, president of the association “For Ukraine for their freedom and ours”. “These abductions occurred first at the time of the forced evacuations to Russia. Added to this, in the temporarily occupied territories, are the children sent to summer camp of which we have not heard,” she explains.
For Oleksandra Romantsova, member of the NGO Center for Civil Liberty, who has just received the Nobel Peace Prize, the objective of these kidnappings is clear. “It’s part of the Russian strategy to destroy Ukrainian identity. Because these children are not only alienating themselves from their families, but also from Ukrainian culture,” she points out. To date, only around 100 children have returned to their country, according to the Ukrainian authorities.