One of the most appalling and perplexing atrocities committed by Vladimir Putin has been the abduction of Ukrainian children. At least 20,000 boys and girls, some just babies, have been separated from their parents and placed in Russian camps, orphanages or foster homes. They are portrayed in Russia as grateful orphans being saved from ‘Kyiv’s war’ – but this is a lie. Most of the deported children have families who are searching for them, desperate to find them and take them back home before their names are changed and they become untraceable.
The abduction of another nation’s children is a form of genocide. But Russia’s population is decreasing and Putin is obsessed with expanding the Russky Mir or ‘Russian World’. After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, he launched the ‘Train of Hope’ programme – any willing Russian could adopt an orphan from Crimea. Ukrainian children were deported from Donbas too: some 1,700 of them were ‘evacuated’ within eight years, according to Moscow state media.
The deportation of children is the only war crime Russia does not deny
The abductions have been carried out by various means.
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