INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Russia on Tuesday flatly rejected allegations that it had deported Ukrainian children since its invasion, but said at the UN that more than
700,000 had moved into its territory.Ukraine has said that 20,000 children have been forced to move to Russia since the war erupted in
President Volodymyr Zelensky has called the action "a genocide."The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child spent two days questioning
Russia on its record, as part of a regular review that all countries have to undergo.The independent experts pressed Russia on the
deportation allegations, wanting to know how many children were affected, where they have been sent to, by whom and for what reasons
Ukraine says that only about 400 children have so far been repatriated.The International Criminal Court issued a war crimes arrest warrant
against Russian President Vladimir Putin in March 2023 accusing him of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian children.The ICC has leveled similar
charges against Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia's presidential commissioner for children's rights.Russia is not a member of the ICC and insists
the warrant against Putin is "void.""Placements for evacuated children are arranged, first and foremost, at their request and with their
consent," Russia told the UN committee in a written response in October last year.And its representatives held a firm line on Tuesday."From
February 2022, since then, the Russian Federation has not been involved in the deportation of citizens of Ukraine on the territory of the
Russian Federation," Alexei Vovchenko, Russia's deputy minister of labor and social protection, told the panel."In total on our territory we
have welcomed nearly 4.8 million Ukrainian citizens
More than 700,000 are children
So that is the number of children welcomed," he said."Most of the children came with their families or the guardians
They were placed in temporary shelters or with relatives."But he indicated that checks were underway concerning the situation of "over 5,000
children" who are "currently being sought."As for the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which the Kremlin says are now part of Russia,
Vovchenko said around 2,000 residents of orphanages and boarding homes were "moved to the Russian Federation.""Ukrainian authorities
previous to this were not particularly concerned" about them, he added.Vovchenko said he was unable to respond to committee requests
concerning the transfer of children from orphanages in Crimea to Russia, asserting that "this is a completely normal process."Moscow annexed
the Crimean peninsula in 2014."It is entirely possible to adopt children, these children can change region," Vovchenko insisted.He was also
unable to answer the committee's questions on the number of Russian children who have lost their fathers in the fighting in Ukraine.Denying
accusations of "propaganda" echoed by the committee chair Ann Marie Skelton of South Africa, the Russian delegation spoke at length about
the "patriotic education" issued to Russian students, notably through courses introduced shortly after the invasion of Ukraine.Skelton said
Moscow should present the committee's findings, which are set to be published on Feb
8, to Russian children during such courses.
