A Russian official who is leading the forced deportation of Ukrainian children from temporarily occupied territories is under fire after admitting that she had adopted a Ukrainian teen.
Speaking in a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, Maria Lvova-Belova — the commissioner for the protection of children’s rights — told the Russian president that she adopted a 15-year-old from Mariupol in eastern Ukraine.
“Now I know what it means to be a mother of a child from Donbas. It is a difficult job but we love each other, that is for sure,” she said Thursday, according to a transcript posted on the Kremlin’s website. “I think we will manage everything.”
A U.S. study published Tuesday found that Lvova-Belova is one of the “most highly involved figures” in the forced deportation and adoption of Ukrainian children.
The study also named her at the center of a scheme that put Ukrainian youth in camps where they are re-educated to help them integrate into Russian society. Researchers said they discovered at least 43 camps and facilities across Russia where Ukrainian children are being held. More sites are still being investigated.
In some cases, the children are taken to military camps in Chechnya and the Crimean Peninsula where they are trained in the use of firearms and military vehicles. The researchers said it is unclear whether the children were sent into the conflict.
Overall, the report found that more than 6,000 children, ranging in age from four months old to 17 years old, have been placed in Russian custody at some point during the war in Ukraine. However, the report noted that the actual figure “is likely significantly higher than 6,000.”
The report was made in collaboration between Yale University and the State Department’s Conflict Observatory program, which was set up in May 2022 to document Russia’s war crimes and other atrocities in Ukraine.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February last year, there have been multiple reports of Ukrainian children being forcibly taken from their homes. The New York Times in October reported that state-run television is even showing Russian officials offering teddy bears to the arriving Ukrainian youth, who are portrayed as children abandoned during the war.
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