News item | 14-09-2023 | 5:40 PM
Russia is guilty of kidnapping children from occupied territories in Ukraine on a large scale. On September 14, Hanke Bruins Slot, Minister of Foreign Affairs, spoke with Ukrainian children who were victims of these Russian kidnappings.
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Russian child abductions
Since the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has thousands of Ukrainian children kidnapped from Ukraine. In doing so, Russia is trying to deprive the children of their Ukrainian family, identity, language and culture. The International Criminal Court in The Hague has issued an arrest warrant for President Putin and Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova for the deportation of Ukrainian children.
Ukrainian delegation in the Netherlands
As part of the Stolen Voices Advocacy Tour its Ukrainian representatives will be in the Netherlands for three days. Their goal? Ensure greater attention to the kidnappings among international decision-makers and organizations. So that they increase the pressure on Russia to return the kidnapped Ukrainian children to their loved ones in Ukraine.
On September 14, Minister Bruins Slot met the Ukrainian delegation. This consisted of the Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, the Advisor to the President of Ukraine on Children’s Rights Darya Herasymchuk and six Ukrainian children between the ages of 11 and 17, who had been kidnapped by Russia over the past 1.5 years. Fortunately, they were able to return to their family. But for many Ukrainian children that is not the case.
In conversation with kidnapped children from Ukraine
The meeting took place in the Children’s Book Museum in The Hague. The children were accompanied by an interpreter (and psychologist). Minister Bruins Slot spoke with them and listened to their moving stories.
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The Netherlands wants to make DNA kits available
In the conversation with the Ukrainian delegation, Minister Bruins Slot shared the Dutch intention to support Ukraine in a new DNA reunification project. By making rapid DNA tests available, the Netherlands wants to help Ukraine set up a DNA database. This allows family relationships of children abducted by Russia who have returned to be established more quickly. And so Ukrainian children returned from Russia can be reunited with their families as quickly as possible. The project also helps gather evidence of child abductions to support war crimes prosecutions, including by the International Criminal Court.
Minister Bruins Slot: “Since the invasion of Ukraine, Russia has kidnapped thousands of Ukrainian children. This deliberate policy of Russia is unprecedentedly cruel and disrupts families. These children should not disappear from the radar. It is of great importance that they are retrieved and reunited with their families. The Netherlands can help Ukraine with these DNA kits.”
How else does the Netherlands help Ukraine?
The Netherlands is very concerned about the Russian deportation of Ukrainian children and continues to support Ukraine in all kinds of ways; also in the fight against child abduction. By contributing to investigations, by imposing sanctions on people involved in the kidnappings, by supporting the return of kidnapped children and by continuing to draw international attention to the subject.
For example, on March 30, 2023, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) launched a mission with experts to investigate the kidnapping of Ukrainian children by Russia. Together with Germany, among others, the Netherlands supported this mission. The task of the mission was to collect new independent data on child abduction. The Netherlands is part of the working group for the mission and makes a financial contribution. The mission confirmed in its report dated May 4, 2023 (in English) that Russia has deported a large number of Ukrainian children and that in some cases this amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity.