Mass child deportations: Russia seeks to 'eradicate Ukrainian identity, history, and entire country'

3 months ago

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00:00At UN Week in New York, Ukraine's president asked about Russia's failure to provide information over

00:08an initial list of 339 children illegally deported since the start of the war. The actual number

00:15could run in the tens of thousands. Russia abducted thousands of Ukrainian children,

00:23and we have brought some of them back. And I thank everyone who's helped. But how long will it take

00:32to bring all of them home? Childhood slips away faster than adults are able to help.

00:41And for more, we turn to Mariam Lambert, CEO of the Emil Foundation Charity, a Dutch-based charity

00:47which works in Ukraine and with orphan children and with trying to help find some of these

00:55children who've been forcibly deported. There's been high-level cases, and there have been some

01:05high-profile cases that come to mind, including a 10-month-old baby who was abducted from the

01:13Kherson Oblast. Yes, so we just need to remind people that actually the official numbers,

01:2019,546 children, were identified by the Ukrainian authority as being deported to Russia or occupied

01:29territories. But the Russians are claiming that they have saved 700,000 children from the war.

01:36And the numbers could vary because we don't have information, and Russia doesn't share information

01:40of whereabouts the children are. So it could be 200,000, it could be 20,000, it could be 35,000.

01:47So our organisation is working on two areas. The Kherson home orphanage, where 48 babies were taken

01:57from Kherson to Russia or occupied territories, and to Oleshki's specialised boarding school,

02:03where children with disabilities, neurological disorder, were also taken. 105 children were taken

02:09from that area to Russia or occupied territories. And one of the child that we are talking about,

02:16the 10-month-old baby, is Margarita Prokopenko. She was deported from Kherson together with her brother,

02:25also Maxim, and another boy called Elia. And they were deported to Russia. And after one and a half

02:32years of investigation, we find out, actually, that Margarita Prokopenko became Margarita, Marina

02:43Mironov. She was then adopted by a Russian official. Adopted by a Russian official. And is there any

02:51follow-up to it? Yes. So there is, of course, there's a diplomatic follow-up to it. The mother

02:57break the silence for the first time. Darina Repina break the silence yesterday, publicly,

03:03because her goal is to actually challenge the Russian authorities by asking for an openly for

03:09DNA test in order to verify if Marina Mironov, as they claim, not to be Margarita Prokopenko.

03:17And what? She would be willing to go to Moscow and submit herself to a test? Of course not.

03:24So what we are asking is a third country to be the mediator in that process and to proceed with

03:31the DNA test in a third country in order to verify that it's compliant. And the child that we are

03:37talking about is Marina Mironov. And just to remind our viewers, this is the issue that landed

03:44the Russian president before the International Criminal Court. Let me ask you,

03:50have you been in contact with Russia yourself over these cases? Have you gotten any replies?

03:59No, we are not in contact with Russia, Russian Federation. We are always working. Initially,

04:06we were working with the Ukrainian government. Now we are more independent and we are working

04:10through a third country as a mediator. So we believe that because there is already 48 countries

04:15who join a coalition and then break its back. But after three years, there is no proper mechanism

04:21of return. Qatar was involved, Vatican was involved, but it was like a 10 percent of all the missing

04:26children. Therefore, we are actually reaching out to countries who have a tight diplomatic

04:32coalition with Russia, which means the BRICS countries, including Brazil, India, the United States,

04:40because as I said, Russia doesn't listen to European talks, but they respond to strength.

04:45And today we believe that the United States is the country who has this unique power to establish a

04:51proper mechanism of return. Have you had any feedback from the Americans? Not yet, but we are working on it.

04:57And of these 19,500 plus, how many have you been able to identify?

05:03So, as I said, we are not working on this number. We are really focusing on two areas, which is 105

05:09children from Olexi Specialized Boarding School and 48 from Kerson Home Orphanage. Out of all these,

05:19we were able to identify 40 children and locate them. And we have family consent as well for all those

05:27children. Locate them how? Through open source, looking at social media posts? How do you do it?

05:34Yes, there's different mechanism. But before, at the beginning of the war, the Russians, since they

05:38claim through their propaganda that they were saving those children, they were actually publishing also.

05:44And there is also a Russian adoption database where some of the children were unfortunately listed

05:51into this database so we could also identify some of the children. And we need to remind people that

05:58when Russia claims that they have saved those children, if it was the case, they would have

06:03followed the Geneva Convention, which lists four principles. Very easy. If it was the case, they would

06:10have given all the information to the parents, to the families and the Ukrainian authorities. They would

06:15have immediately evacuated all the children that they have saved, according to them, directly to a third

06:21country for safety. They would have also provided all this information to the Red Cross or UNICEF.

06:27And they would have also provided all the information on the children to the Red Cross or UNICEF.

06:32Unfortunately, they have done all the opposite. Over the last three years, we have found out

06:36through the Yale Humanitarian Lab reports that 340 children from the Donetsk and Lugask region

06:42were found in Russian adoption database. The name was changed, the date of birth was changed,

06:48they all got a Russian passport.

06:51One question, Mariam Lambert. Why is Russia doing this?

06:54Because they believe that the Ukrainians are Nazis and they need to be eliminated. This is an open

07:00statement by the President Putin, who believe that all Ukrainians are Nazis. This is why they are

07:05trying to eradicate their identity, eradicate the history, they identicate the whole country. And by

07:11that, they are brainwashing those children that they are taking in order for them to become Russian.

07:16And in the future, maybe fighting against their own country, which is Ukraine.

07:20Mariam Lambert, so many thanks for being with us here on France 24.

07:25Stay with us. There's much more to come. More news, plus the day's business.

Mass child deportations: Russia seeks to 'eradicate Ukrainian identity, history, and entire country'

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