Stories from Ukraine – including the fate of abducted Ukrainian children

On November 13th the UK Foreign And Commonwealth Office promoted ‘Stories in Ukraine – Surviving Russian Atrocities’. Their officials have sent a helpful resumé of the event and what was said:

It featured oral testimony from Ukrainian witnesses of Russian atrocities, who agreed to speak publicly about their experiences.

The FCDO partnered with two Ukrainian NGOs for this event.

Save Ukraine, established in 2014, focuses on rescuing Ukraine’s most vulnerable from conflict zones. This includes orphans and at-risk children, elderly and disabled persons.

In the early stages of Putin’s invasion, Save Ukraine worked to evacuate civilians from front-line towns and villages. More recently, their work has pivoted to organising rescue missions to return Ukrainian children from Russia, and the organisation has so far facilitated the returns of 204 children.

At the event, guests heard from two child witnesses who had been transferred to Russia and subjected to so-called “patriotic education” and reintegration programmes, and whose return to Ukraine was supported by Save Ukraine.

ZMINA Human Rights Centre was founded in 2012 and aims to promote human rights, the rule of law and the ideas of civil society in Ukraine. Since Russia’s illegal invasion, ZMINA has been working to document alleged war crimes committed in Ukraine, with a particular focus on torture and ill-treatment of Ukrainian civilians by Russian forces in the temporarily controlled territories.

At the event, two witnesses described their and their family’s experiences of torture, including the use of electrocution by Russian forces.

The FCDO says that the UK is committed to ensuring that those responsible for these atrocities are held to account for their actions.

They say that they are supporting the work of the Office of the Prosecutor General and the International Criminal Court to ensure allegations of war crimes are fully and fairly investigated. In addition to the UK’s contribution of £10.5m to the ICC annual budget, last financial year they provided a further £2m, which will help increase the ICC’s capacity to collect evidence and provide enhanced psychosocial support to witnesses and survivors.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion, the UK has committed £2.5m towards supporting Ukraine’s domestic accountability efforts. UK funding has helped deploy Mobile Justice Teams to the scenes of potential war crimes, trained more than 100 judges and deployed 30,000 forensic medical kits for police officers investigating conflict-related sexual violence. On 17 July 2023, the UK announced new sanctions in response to Russia’s attempts to destroy Ukrainian national identity, including sanctioning ten individuals and one entity involved in the forcible deportation of Ukrainian children.

In June 2022, the UK sanctioned the Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, for her alleged involvement in the forced deportation and adoption of Ukrainian children.

The FCDO insists that the UK and our allies are steadfast in their resolve to support Ukraine’s fight for independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity – not just in the here and now, but for the long term as well. They want us all to share these stories with others to raise international awareness of Russia’s illegal actions, to keep this issue on the public agenda.

Source: David Alton