Lubinets: Russia trying to conceal continuation of genocidal policy against Ukrainian children

After the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian president Vladimir Putin and Russian president's commissioner for children's rights Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia has changed its actions and tries to conceal the continuation of the genocidal policy against Ukrainian children.

"The Russians changed their tactics and started using new legal definitions. After Lvova-Belova received an arrest warrant, they began to publicly say: no, this was not an adoption [of a Ukrainian child by her], it was temporary protection of Ukrainian children. Currently, we see how such terms as ‘migrant children’ and ‘migrant policy’ appear in the official documents of the Russian Federation. That is, they already avoid mentioning the fact that it is about Ukrainian children," Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets said during the United News telethon, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

According to Lubinets, the Russians try to cover it up with other terms so that no one can accuse them of continuing the genocidal policy against Ukrainian children.

"For international law lawyers, it is absolutely clear that the fact of recognizing genocide does not depend on the number [of children]. Even if we prove that these actions were committed against 100 Ukrainian children, it must be interpreted as genocide. And we have evidence and proof that the Russian Federation is doing this against tens of thousands of Ukrainian children, even hundreds," Lubinets noted.

The Ombudsman added that the Russians were legally removing all the documents on the basis of which they should inform about Ukrainian children and civilians who stay in the territory of the Russian Federation and in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine.

Lubinets believes that this is how the Russian Federation shows that they ignore international humanitarian law and their international obligations, and thus remove all responsibility from themselves.

He believes that there should be a reverse process in this matter.

"If the Russians officially say that now they are not obliged to inform the UN, then I have an absolutely simple and logical question: what are they doing as part of the UN then? That is, if they refuse international organizations, why do international organizations not do anything to expel them in the same way? Let's expel them," Lubinets said.

The Ombudsman believes that after the Russian Federation is expelled from the Council of Europe, it will be possible to expel it from the OSCE and the UN.