Commissioner for Children’s Rights in Russia Maria Lvova-Belova gave interview Vice Edition, in which she spoke about children taken out of Ukraine, her attitude to the charges of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the forced deportation of children, and also about an adopted child from Mariupol.
About the ICC Charges
In mid-March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Lvova-Belova and Russian President Vladimir Putin for “illegal deportation” of children from Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine. Responding to the interviewer’s question whether Lvova-Belova is a war criminal, the Ombudsman said:
“That’s very funny. I’m a mom, that says it all. What kind of war criminal am I, what are you talking about?
She recalled that Russia does not recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court and that the removal of children from dangerous areas is authorized by the Geneva Convention. According to the Ombudsman, the ICC considers the “evacuation of children” from the bombings as a criminal offence, deportation and forced removal.
International Criminal Court building in The Hague, NetherlandsOliver de la Haye / Adobe Stock
The journalist reminded that in this case the evacuation should be carried out to third countries. Lvova-Belova replied that the DPR and the LPR “were not Ukraine, they were recognized as independent republics by our state”.
The Ombudsman added that Ukraine “did nothing” to evacuate the children from Mariupol. “Where were the humanitarian corridors, where was the evacuation of children? The same is happening now near Bakhmut,” Lvova-Belova said.
About the Genocide
The Commissioner denied the charges of genocide due to the export of children. “How can we talk about genocide if we have quite a large part of the population in Russia with Ukrainian blood? What genocide? What are you talking about?” – she said.
According to Lvova-Belova, children who came to Russia with their parents and want to continue learning the Ukrainian language have this opportunity. They also retain Ukrainian nationality, the Ombudsman added.
“We are not canceling it, we are not replacing it. We complete and allow, what about the erasure of identity? <…> How can citizenship erase identity? We always sang songs in Russian and Ukrainian. We told Russian and Ukrainian fairy tales. We have always lived in friendship and understanding. And what is happening now, on the contrary, everything related to Russia is being erased in Ukraine,” she said.
About camps and parental separation
The presenter asked Lvova-Belova a question about the temporary stay of children taken from Ukraine to Russian summer camps separately, separated from their parents. In particular, she asked if Russia encouraged children to continue to stay in the country.
The Ombudsman noted that we are talking about children from “regions which have recognized themselves as Russia”. Several thousand of them were sent to camps “in agreement with their parents” from “the bombed areas of the Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Kharkiv regions”.
“And when parents were offered to send them on vacation for free, of course, everyone happily accepted.
Then there was a change of front line and some parents really stayed on the side of Ukraine.
And that made it difficult for the children to return home,” Lvova-Belova explained.
On the participation of children in gatherings-concerts
Lvova-Belova explained the participation of children brought from Ukraine in the February concert in Luzhniki in support of the Russian military operation by the fact that the children “thanked the fighters for saving”. “Well, words of gratitude – is that really propaganda?” said the mediator.
Meeting-concert “Glory to the Defenders of the Fatherland”, dedicated to the participants of the special operation and the celebration of Defender of the Fatherland Day, at the Luzhniki stadium. Soldier Yuri Gagarin with the call sign “Angel” and the children he saved in MariupolEvgenia Demina / Kommersant
She added that Russia does not use children for politics and “this is our difference with Ukraine”.
According to Lvova-Belova, in the actions that the commissioner’s office took “at this time”, “there was not a single gram of politics, there was only empathy, there was than love”. “And so I can say with certainty that I am not ashamed of any of my actions, because everything was for the children and for the good of the children,” she concluded.
About an adopted child from Mariupol
In the fall of 2022, Lvova-Belova announced the adoption of a teenager from Mariupol. In April 2023, she said that his adopted son runs after younger children shouting “Kick off the Muscovite”, and explained this by “eight years of anti-Russian propaganda”, which was allegedly carried out in the territory of Mariupol.
In an interview with Vice, the mediator said that children, including her future adopted son, had been found in the basements of Mariupol.
“And we spoke with him, and, you know, my heart skipped a beat. I realized it was my child,” Lvova-Belova shared.
She added that adopting a child is “always a difficult situation”, with the adaptation of the adopted son having taken a year. According to the commissioner, now that he calls Lvova-Belova mother, they “love each other madly”, and “really very close relations” have been established between them.
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