Bi-Weekly Digest 26

Latest News

• May 13: The charity organization Save Ukraine returned nine more Ukrainian children with their families from the Russian occupation. The children said that they were forced to join the Russian paramilitary youth organization Yunarmia and the older children were made to study shooting.
• May 9: The Russians are creating registers of Mariupol residents who will be banned from living in the city and thus are subject to deportation.
• May 1: Ukrainian journalist investigated the case of deported Marharyta who was illegally adopted by the family of Russia’s Duma politician. Marharyta has a sibling in Ukraine whose guardians want to return Marharyta back to Ukraine.
• April 30: Together with the Council of Europe, Ukraine began preparations for the creation of a Special Tribunal for the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine, including the deportation of children.
• April 29: The Family Reintegration and Recovery Program, organized by Qatar, is already working for 16 Ukrainian children. These are minors who were deported to Russia or those whose parents were in captivity.
• April 18: Maria Lvova-Belova reacted to the claims that 161 deported Ukrainian children were in Germany, saying that it was Ukraine’s disinformation. She denied that Russia has ever deported Ukrainian children.
  

Advocacy advances

1. The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metzola, visited the Center for the Protection of Children’s Rights. The foreign delegation got acquainted with the work of the Center and talked with the children who were successfully returned from deportation.
2. Canada confirmed its participation in the First Peace Summit for Ukraine. On the initiative of Canada, the International Coalition for the Return of Deported Children was created, so the country is likely to raise the issue of deportation.

Materials we facilitated

• Khrystyna Shkudor, Where Are Our People? Advocacy Manager, told about the militarization and deportation of children in Russia-occupied Crimea
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AB-IUkXvR0E
• The story of 11-year-old Illia
  https://www.dw.com/uk/11ricnij-illa-z-mariupola-vteca-z-pekla-vijni-ta-deportacii2-a-68962138/a-68962138
  https://www.dw.com/de/kind-aus-ukraine-der-kriegsh%C3%B6lle-und-deportation-entkommen/a-68944757

• The story of 17-year-old Valeriia, who was forced to study in Russia but was returned to Ukraine
  https://www.euronews.com/2024/04/13/how-17-year-old-ukrainian-valeriia-escaped-a-russian-re-education-camp
• Vladyslav Havrylov, a researcher at Where Are Our People?, wrote on how Russia finances the deportation of Ukrainian children
  https://war.ukraine.ua/articles/the-illegal-deportation-of-ukrainian-children-is-a-crime-organized-and-financed-by-russian-officials/

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