Anna Kmarska, 12, from Kherson, has been held for several months against her parents’ wishes in Russian-controlled territories. This city, one of the first military captures of the Kremlin almost a year ago, was liberated by the Ukrainian army last November. But many children are missing.
“It is about the deportation of the children because my daughter was not returned to me. She left with her school, she never came back, ”her mother testifies before the BFMTV microphone.
Indeed, before the departure of the Russians, brochures were displayed in stores. He said: “Parents who wish to send their children to a summer camp, please contact the school administrations of your place of residence.”
Anna’s parents then accepted this proposal, to keep their daughter away from the incessant bombardments. Since then they have been fighting to get her daughter back, still in Donbass, who asks for their help.
“My mommy, please take me home, I miss you so much, come find me,” he said in a video obtained by BFMTV.
A well-oiled “strategy”
Since last February, thousands of Ukrainian children have been victims of forced transfers organized by the Russian authorities. According to the Children of War platform, more than 15,000 disappearances have been reported.
These deportations are organized in particular by a woman, Maria Lvova-Belova, Vladimir Putin’s commissioner for children’s rights since 2021. For others, she is nicknamed “Bloody Mary”.
The former senator of the presidential party leads a child deportation policy that she assumes and even exhibits on her Telegram channel.
“The children of these territories are ours and their future is here with the Russian children,” he proclaims in propaganda clips.
For Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International, “we can only see these stays and these transfers of children within the framework of a military policy.”
deported to Siberia
4,000 kilometers from its original Donbass, BFMTV went to meet children adopted, without their parents’ consent, by Russian families. Roman Vinogradov, a pastor from Sadovy in Siberia, adopted five Ukrainian children thanks to a decree by Vladimir Putin that allows Ukrainian children to be granted citizenship much faster.
According to the couple, the young Ukrainians, now Russians, are fulfilled. However, a few minutes after the start of the interview with one of them, Alla, she bursts into tears.
“My life there was good. Before being hospitalized, I lived in a small town in Donbass. We lived in a house. I lived with my mother and my sister Alessia,” she confesses.
His mother, who lost custody of her children due to alcoholism, will never get her children back according to Roman Vinogradov: “If she comes to claim her rights as a mother, she will have nothing.”
125 children evacuated
Faced with this situation, some parents have decided not to let it pass. Natalia Borisenko managed to return to Russia with other relatives through Belarus. Once they arrived at a “holiday camp”, the parents managed to get their children back.
“We didn’t know if we were going to make it,” said the mother of 12-year-old Daria, who arrived at the Kharkiv train station.
Relieved to be back home, Daria was able to recount Russian strategies for children to forget about their families. Showered with gifts, well-fed and engaged in physical and recreational activities, the young teenagers spent several weeks in these centers, before being placed with Russian families and drawing a line under their Ukrainian identity.
Despite everything, “I missed my mother and also my house, we all wanted to go home,” Daria concedes to the BFMTV microphone.
By the end of January, only 125 other children were allowed to return from Russia as Daria.
Source: BFM TV
