ROC assists in Russification of abducted Ukrainian children to destroy their identity - ISW
The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), supported by the Kremlin, is actively involved in the Russification of Ukrainian children who were illegally deported to Russia to destroy their national identity.
According to Ukrinform, this is stated in a report by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The analysts in their report refer to a joint investigation by the Russian opposition student magazine DOXA and the open-source resource Kidmapping, which highlights the role of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Russification of Ukrainian children deported to Russia by the Russian authorities.
DOXA found out that from the first days of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian officials deported Ukrainian children from orphanages and boarding schools in the occupied Donetsk region to the Rostov region of Russia, where they were visited by Metropolitan Mercury (Igor Ivanov) of Rostov and Novocherkassk. He told them about the Russian Orthodox Church and seemed to encourage them to consider baptism into the ROC.
ROC clerics also encouraged deported Ukrainian children to be baptised into the ROC and reportedly encouraged them to join various 'military-patriotic' youth organisations in Russia.
DOXA and Kidmapping also found that deported children from the temporarily occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions were held in ROC shelters in Voronezh Oblast, where ROC clergy and associated officials hold "military-patriotic" events for deported children to encourage pro-Russian sentiment and cut children off from their Ukrainian identity.
ISW has previously assessed that the Russian Orthodox Church plays an important role in the implementation of the Kremlin's plan to occupy Ukraine. This extends to Russia's efforts to Russify deported Ukrainian children living in Russia.
As noted, the Kremlin-appointed Commissioner for Children's Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, who has been issued an arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court for her role in facilitating the deportation of Ukrainian children, is married to an ROC priest. Lvova-Belova and her husband adopted a deported Ukrainian child from Mariupol themselves, which underscores the personal involvement of the ROC and other Kremlin officials in the deportation of Ukrainian children, analysts say.
"ISW continues to believe that the deportation of Ukrainian children with the intention of destroying their Ukrainian identity through such Russification projects is a violation of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which prohibits the 'forcible transfer of children of one group to another group' as it constitutes an act of genocide," the report said.
As Ukrinform reported, journalists from The New York Times found out that Russia abducted 46 Ukrainian children from the Kherson orphanage at the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
According to official data from the Ukrainian authorities, 19,546 children have been deported from Ukraine to Russia since 24 February 2022. These are only those cases that have been officially recorded - when a parent, guardian or witness of a child's deportation reported it to the National Information Bureau of Ukraine. So far, more than 380 children have been returned to Ukraine.
On 17 March 2023, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber issued arrest warrants for Russian President Putin and Children's Ombudsman Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of war crimes - deportation and illegal transfer of population, including children, from the occupied territory of Ukraine.