The American TV channel Vice conducted an interview with the Russian childrenʼs ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova, who spoke about the fact that she "rescued Ukrainian children" when they were deported to the Russian Federation.
The adviser to the head of the Presidentʼs Office (OP) Mykhailo Podolyak was outraged by this and her stories about the "unusual motherʼs heart."
"We just came to their cities, destroyed their houses, killed and maimed their parents in front of their eyes, sent them to infiltration camps in distant regions, where we are severely abused and forced to listen to propaganda lectures, and supplemented it with a second passport. Isnʼt that salvation? Isnʼt it about "Russian mercy"? Isnʼt it about justice? Donʼt we have the right to strip them of their false identity? It is impossible to come up with a more accurate illustration of the word "cannibal," wrote Podolyak.
The Vice interview with Lvova-Belova was published on May 1. Journalists said that she had prepared well, and her team had been filming them on mobile phones for days before the meeting. In the conversation, she denies accusations of deportation of Ukrainian children, states that "they rescued children from regions that recognized themselves as Russian, these are Russian-speaking children who wanted to become part of great Russia." She also said that the Russians adopted 380 Ukrainian children.
According to the Geneva Conventions ( Article 24 ), children under the age of 15, who have been orphaned or separated from their families due to war, can only be taken temporarily for humanitarian reasons, and necessarily to a third country, not to the aggressor country.
- On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the President of Russia Vladimir Putin and the Russian Presidentʼs Commissioner for Childrenʼs Rights Maria Lvova-Belova. They are accused of directing the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, which is a war crime. Children were taken out without the permission of relatives and Ukraine, in Russia they were granted citizenship. For this purpose, Putin passed a number of decrees that simplified these procedures, and Lvova-Belova carried out his orders. Together with their parents, up to 150 000 children could be deported to Russia (just over 300 were returned). For the fifth time in its history, the International Court of Justice issues a warrant for the arrest of a sitting president. He can be arrested by a country that has ratified the Rome Statute.