Thread by @TheStudyofWar

#Russian Commissioner on Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, confirmed that the Russian government is using a variety of schemes to deport #Ukrainian children to #Russia in a comment apparently meant to disprove Western allegations of the illegality of these actions. 🧵(1/6)

https://twitter.com/TheStudyofWar/status/1634355665677287425

2/ In a March 10 Telegram post, Lvova-Belova accused the West of manufacturing fear regarding the deportation and forced adoption of Ukrainian children and claimed that children came to occupied areas of Ukraine and Russian territory “voluntarily” & can return to their families.

3/ Lvova-Belova admitted that #Russian authorities have taken children from #Kherson, #Zaporizhia, and #Kharkiv oblasts to “sanatoriums” and health camps in occupied #Crimea and #Krasnodar Krai for “rest” and protection from hostilities.

4/ Lvova-Belova further claimed that 89 “children of #Ukrainian citizens” will be reunited with their families from such programs in #Crimea and #Krasnodar Krai.

5/ An independent investigation by Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab found that of likely over 14,700 #Ukrainian children deported to #Russia, only 126 returned to #Ukraine as of January 2023.

6/ Lvova-Belova's claim that a certain number of #Ukrainian children are being returned to their families does not negate the reality that the vast majority of abducted children do not return to #Ukraine. isw.pub/UkrWar031023