Anna Yuryevna, the Investigative Committee initiated more than two thousand criminal cases. The horrific circumstances of childhood that are not children are investigated – trafficking of minor children, cruel treatment, sexual abuse, serious injuries, murders. What crimes do you consider need special attention?
Anna Kuznetsova: We will talk about the crimes of the flagrant themselves, the space for the terrible fantasies of the criminals of the Kyiv regime was not limited. We will start with crimes against the life and health of children – murders, violence. The blood freezes from what happened. In one of the Lisichansk schools, monsters from the “Tornado” volunteer detachment set up a “torture room”. Children were tortured, raped, all of this was filmed. In the city with the peaceful name of Happiness, with the participation of the director of one of the high schools, non-humans organized the delivery of orphaned underage girls to the “Aidar” battalion for bullying and satisfaction of sexual needs. We will talk about crippled children, for whom we are now trying to organize rehabilitation.
Sadly, children continue to suffer from the Kyiv regime even now. When the Armed Forces of Ukraine fire on kindergartens, schools, beaches, playgrounds, their basic right to life is violated. I met in the hospital the children injured on the playgrounds. When you hold in your arms a baby injured by shrapnel, who has been covered by your mother, feelings cannot be expressed in words. She died, the child survived. I was in the hospital after the bombardment. This child was cradled by a relative, no one could recover from what had happened.
Another type of crime we will discuss is the violation of children’s basic rights to education and health care. There are cases when criminals blocked the road for an ambulance. A girl in one of the villages, without waiting for doctors, who were prevented from entering, died. With regard to education, there are examples where children have been forced to learn terrorist training in schools. Through educational materials, textbooks, children’s organizations. In my office, during an impromptu exhibition, there are T-shirts with the inscription “Azov” (the organization is prohibited in the Russian Federation – editor’s note), to clearly show that it is definitely not for adult men. These are children’s shorts and t-shirts. Children were trained to be “Azov”. It is also a violation of children’s rights. We talked about it when we were in the uncontrolled territories in Syria. And they spoke with horror. There, children under the age of 14 were taken away by terrorists, recruiting them into militant battalions of the Islamic State. We now see that the whole state is committed to this policy vis-à-vis its own children. And the third type of crime is the illegal export of children, pupils of orphanages, abroad. Now there is a lot of talk about the fact that orphanages were taken in an unknown direction, there is evidence of the disappearance of children, but there are no concrete decisions on these cases yet. We will find out. And, of course, we will talk about the crimes committed in the Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk regions.
How to find out about the reality of the crimes?
Anna Kuznetsova: We receive requests from human rights organizations. Special commissions work in the territory of Donbass, which record evidence of crimes committed by the military-political leadership of Ukraine against the civilian population, I met with members of these commissions. We have already received some of the evidence of the commission by the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the Kiev regime as a whole of deliberate crimes against the person, as well as war crimes. So, in the Lugansk People’s Republic, the death of 56 children is currently established, the youngest of them was only 27 days old. In the DPR, as a result of the military aggression of Ukraine, 171 children were killed, 583 were injured of varying severity. Recorded facts of deaths and injuries of children in the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. Children were injured in the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions. Crimes and violations of children’s rights continue.
Many criminal cases date back to 2014. Why are we only talking about this now?
Anna Kuznetsova: In fact, in 2014, the special commissions created on the territory of Donbass were not silent. Two thousand messages went to the ECHR from the LPR, to the International Criminal Court – more than 1500. For nine years, appeals went to the UN Security Council, the Commission on Human Rights of the UN, the European Court of Human Rights, the International Criminal Court, the ICRC, the OSCE. Representatives of Donbass tried to get a response from international organizations, but no one heard them. We met with representatives of Donbass, they have at their disposal fully described facts of the crimes, some of which have been made public in the international media. But not only was there no response, and at least no legal assessment of these crimes, the response was that Russia was branded a criminal. This once again confirms the impotence and impotence of international organizations.
On every page of the book “The Executed Childhood of Donbass” there is evidence of the terrible crimes of the Ukrainian army in Donbass. Click to view the PDF.
What will the parliamentary committee do?
Anna Kuznetsova: We are not replacing the activities of the RF IC. The assessment of what is happening, the establishment of the facts of violations of the rights and freedoms of children, the identification of the causes and conditions of their occurrence will be carried out in accordance with the Federal Law “On the parliamentary inquiry into the Assembly of the Russian Federation.” The task of the investigation is to build up an evidence base, to make all the documents public, to send them to the national parliaments of other countries. One of the areas of our work will be discussions with colleagues from other states, and here no one will stop us. We will also be able to propose changes to the law so that we never again face such blatant tampering and deafness. Crimes should immediately receive the correct assessment. We have seen that it cannot be left to the mercy of international organizations, because it is ineffective. It is therefore necessary to find other measures which will make it possible to give an accurate assessment of such phenomena. Now, as more and more people become convinced of who the real perpetrator of the crimes is, we hope other states will support us. Witnesses of crimes against children have spoken, but, unfortunately, their voices are not heard either, these facts have not reached, for example, the specialized structures of the UN. At one time, we worked with these ministries when it came to Syrian children, but now, unfortunately, we don’t see the appropriate response. We hope that we will be heard when we enter a large-scale discussion.
Does the parliamentary committee have tools to influence the international community?
Anna Kuznetsova: Our country, no matter how much everyone likes it or dislikes it, has a lot of partners. Even preliminary discussions on this topic with colleagues from our friendly states have aroused great interest. Moreover, they say that an investigation is necessary and that they are ready to support, in order to protect other states from it. Actions of foreign states, which, in fact, led to a coup in Ukraine. The terrorist regime that exists there is the result of this foreign influence. In such an environment, no state feels safe and particularly cares about its children. The results of our investigation will not only be descriptions of specific crimes, but also legal solutions. We have already described a whole series of such decisions to strengthen protection against various types of influence and, of course, sketched out solutions regarding the protection of child victims of Ukrainian aggression.
“The Executed Childhood of Donbass” contains the terrible stories of 35 dead children of the LPR. Pages from the book “The Executed Childhood of Donbass”. Photo: Tagir Rajavov/RG
Help “RG”
According to official figures, more than 5,000 civilians, including more than 130 children, died as a result of the armed conflict in the new territories of Russia. At least 9,500 civilians were injured, including more than 400 children and teenagers. More than 126,000 people, including more than 24,000 minors, have been recognized as victims of shelling by armed formations of the Kyiv regime.
How was it
Viktoria Machalova, director of the Lugansk orphanage, told the RG correspondent how orphanages have disappeared in Ukraine. According to her, on June 5, 2014, orphans and children left without parental care, who were in the Lugansk region, were taken to Odessa and distributed to health facilities. The word “evacuation” did not sound anywhere, it was only about the improvement of the children.
- Our orphanage rested in Sergeevka, in a children’s health camp, – remembers Victoria Alexandrovna. We stayed there for nearly three months. In August, it became clear he was unsure of returning. And the children were distributed to boarding schools and orphanages. My children were assigned to the Belgorod-Dnestrovsky orphanage.
28 students, teachers and director attended. Then they hoped the order would come to go home. But the order never arrived. The headmaster and teachers were forced to leave, leaving the children there – there was no order to send them away, but there was an order for the children to stay. Since then, there has been no official information about the future fate of the children. The director made requests, wrote letters.
- We wrote to Severodonetsk, the direction that sent us, – said the director. – We were told that it is not advisable to return the children due to the dangerous situation, the children will be returned as soon as the situation returns to normal. We did not hand over any documents other than birth certificates. Officially no one else has contacted us, but I know that many children have been identified in the families of US citizens. I myself was looking for children on social networks, guys got in touch. Once, one of my daughters wrote to me: “Give us back our papers, we don’t need anything else from you. I fully understand that this girl could not write such a thing, it was written by an adult. Some children – not mine, other orphanages – when they turned 18, came back, declared themselves. But there has been no officially organized return of the children. We have raised this issue on all platforms. Our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and our authorized representative tried to find out what was going on with the children, but they did not receive any answers.
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