Russia is violating “fundamental principles of wartime child protection by issuing Russian passports to Ukrainian children and giving them up for adoption”, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees told Reuters. (UNHCR) Filippo Grandi. Over the past 6 days, Grandi traveled through Ukrainian cities and communicated with, among other things, Ukrainians displaced from war zones.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy , after meeting Grandi on Wednesday, called for the creation of mechanisms for the “protection and return” of children and adults deported to Russia, as well as the punishment of those responsible for these movements.
In turn, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said:
that his office is unable to assess the true extent of the problem and the number of children who have been issued Russian passports or placed for adoption in Russia. Access for UNHCR representatives in Russia was extremely limited.
“We try to have access all the time, but it happens quite rarely, sporadically and not seamlessly, if you know what I mean,” Grandi said.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, while in Kiev, predicted two scenarios for the development of the situation of Ukrainian refugees. He recalled that since the beginning of the war, more than 8 million Ukrainians have left the country and several million others have been displaced inside Ukraine.
Grandi believes that large numbers of refugees could return to Ukraine during the warmer months, as happened in 2022 when, according to UNHCR estimates, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians returned to Ukraine at the end of summer. Grandi believes the onset of cold weather and continued Russian missile attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have halted that trend, causing power, water and heating outages in major cities.
Grandi also warned that a further escalation in hostilities in the spring could trigger a new wave of refugees, although Grandi said they were more likely to be refugees inside Ukraine.
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