Zarivna: children were taken out of the occupied Crimea, whom the Russian authorities “forcibly” took away from the mother

Occupied Crimea managed to take out eight children, the operating director of Bring Kids Back UA Dariya Zarivna reported on February 6.

“Their history is an example of the systemic cruelty of the invaders: the children were forcibly selected from the mother while staying in the hospital, forcing her to give them to a kindergarten under threats,” the Presidential Office said.

According to her, in the children’s home, children were harassed, forced to participate in Russian propaganda events and militaristic circles, where they were taught to handle weapons and prepared for war.

“All this is part of Russian policy aimed at destroying Ukrainian identity,” Zarivna said.

She thanked Save Ukraine for assistance in organizing a rescue mission.

Read also: From the occupied territories of Kherson region managed to take out five children – Proudin

According to Ukraine’s official data, more than 20,000 Ukrainian children were found in Russia and the occupied territories. The Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmitry Lubinets suggested that Russia illegally exported about 150,000 children from Ukraine. The BP, Darya Gerasimchuk, calls the figure in “several hundred thousand children, that is, somewhere 200-300 thousand”.

As of November 12, Ukraine was able to return from the territory of the Russian Federation and temporarily occupied lands more than a thousand children, said the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights Dmitry Lubinets.

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court in the Hague issued warrants for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the children’s Ombudsman of the Russian Federation Maria Lviv-Belova. They are suspected of committing war crimes – violent deportations and movement of the population, including children, from the occupied territories of Ukraine.