The Telegraph: Thousands of Ukrainian children have been abducted to Belarus
Photo: The Telegraph
The self-proclaimed president of Belarus, Aleksander Lukashenko, may be involved in the forced deportation of several thousand Ukrainian children to the Republic of Belarus.
Rubryka reports, citing The Telegraph, that since September 2022, about 2,150 Ukrainian children over six have been taken to four camps in Belarus. According to experts' forecasts, there may be 3,000 of them by the fall of this year.
One document seen by The Telegraph was signed by Dmitry Mezentsev, Chair of the Russian-Belarusian organization and former Russian ambassador to Belarus. It outlines a request for cooperation between the Belarusian and Russian state railways to organize "transportation of the children of Donbas for rehabilitation to brotherly Belarus."
The publication says that the document was submitted to the International Criminal Court as evidence by the National Anti-Crisis Management, which is run by a group of opposition figures in exile opposing the Belarusian government.
The organization also provided other materials, including reports from Belarusian state media. They are directly talking about the transfer of children on the order of Mr. Lukashenko.
Three "camps" are in the Minsk region, including the Ostroshitsky Gorodok Sanatorium, the Zubrenok national children's Educational and health center, and the Dubrava Children's Camp, owned by the Belarusian state fertilizer company Belaruskali.
Photo: The Telegraph
Kateryna Rashevska, a Ukrainian public organization Regional Center for Human Rights lawyer, said that families looking for missing children "may not even know that their children are in Belarus."
One video submitted to the ICC as evidence shows the Gruzdeva sisters, Belarusian singers, talking to Ukrainian children in what is believed to be the Dubrava camp.
"So that we live in peace, so that Biden dies, God forgive me, so that Zelensky dies too, and Putin prospers and takes control of all of Ukraine," the sisters say to dozens of children seated in the audience.
Evidence linking these crimes to Lukashenko and other Belarusian officials has already been handed over to the ICC.
"We want to show the world that such activity, [organized] by Lukashenko, is a war crime," said Pavlo Latushka, head of the opposition group.
Як працює ймовірний воєнний злочин
Photo: The Telegraph
What we know about Russia's abduction of Ukrainian children
During the war, Russian aggressors repeatedly forcibly took Ukrainian children to Russia. They are also deported to the territory of Belarus and the temporarily occupied territories of the so-called "Luhansk People's Republic" or "Donetsk People's Republic."
As Rubryka reported, according to the Office of the Prosecutor General, as of July 1 this year, 19,489 children were deported to Russia and the so-called republics, of which only 373 minors were returned home.
In the temporarily occupied Luhansk region, the Russian occupying forces are preparing another 750 children for deportation and have already started forming groups.
Recently, President Zelensky discussed the return of Ukrainian children deported by Russia with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.
Ukraine's ambassador Kyslytsia stated in the UN Security Council that Russia's invasion of Ukraine affected all 7.5 million Ukrainian children.
Ukraine's authorities have recorded the stay of our children, kidnapped by the Russian Federation, in 57 regions of Russia.
For such crimes, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and the Russian President's Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova.
