russia does not intend to return abducted Ukrainian children – Canadian intelligence
russia does not intend to return abducted children to Ukraine, regardless of conditions on the ground.
russia has established simplified legal procedures for granting citizenship to children deported from Ukraine, Canadian Armed Forces report on Twitter.
"Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, russia has deported thousands of children from russian-occupied areas without their legal guardians' consent. Such actions form the basis of the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant for president putin." the intelligence says.
russia claims that it intends to return children who were removed from Ukraine when it is safe to do so.
At the same time, russia demands that parents or legal guardians travel from Ukraine to retrieve their children in person. russian authorities are aware that doing so is extremely difficult without their assistance, which they do not provide.
Ukraine has currently established more than 16 thousand children who were deported from the occupied territories. In February, the Conflict Observatory and the Yale Laboratory for Humanitarian Studies collected information on at least 6,000 Ukrainian children between the ages of 4 months and 17 years who were or are being held in russian camps and other facilities after February 24, 2022.
On March 17, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for the president of russia, vladimir putin, and the Commissioner for Children of russia, maria lvova-belova. They are suspected of illegally transporting Ukrainian children from the occupied territories to russia.
They can be detained on the territory of countries that have ratified the Rome Statute. Ukraine only signed it, but did not ratify it.
