Russia places at least 1148 Ukrainian children under "preliminary guardianship"

That's according to an investigation by the "Vazhlyvi istorii" publication, Ukrinform reports.

At the end of 2022, Russian Children's Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova said that 380 children taken from the territory of Ukraine had been placed in Russian families. Since then, the official has repeatedly mentioned the same number.

However, the report on the activities of the Rostov region government for 2022 states that 1148 children who arrived "without legal representatives from the territories of Donbas and Ukraine" were placed under preliminary guardianship.

It is unclear from the wording what the status of these children is, how many of them are under the care of relatives, and how many are orphans. It is also unknown whether all of them remained in Russian families, as a temporary guardian is appointed for a period of six to eight months. If he or she does not apply for permanent guardianship during this time, it is terminated.

Most likely, not all of the 1,148 children remained in Rostov region, as the report of the Russian Ministry of Education states that in 2022, only 534 children were placed under preliminary guardianship in this region. This is half the number claimed by the Rostov region authorities. Most likely, the rest of the children went to other regions.

The publication notes that it is difficult to track the fate of every child out of more than a thousand, but open sources have established the whereabouts of 290 children from Ukraine in 23 regions of Russia.

Most of them - 47 children - are in the Novosibirsk region. At least 30 children ended up in families in Moscow region, 25 in Kaluga region, 24 in Nizhny Novgorod region, 21 more deported children live in families in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, and 20 in Leningrad region. Less than 20 children were taken to other regions.

Four subjects (Penza, Rostov, Kostroma and Novgorod regions) were mentioned in the news as regions where children were deported, but it is unknown how many children ended up there.

The publication notes that all of these children were probably placed with Russian families between April and October 2022. Since November, news of the mass transfer of deported children to foster care has ceased to appear, with only isolated cases reported in the media.

As Ukrinform reported, on March 17 this year, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Maria Lvova-Belova and Vladimir Putin in connection with war crimes - deportation and illegal displacement of the population, including children, from the occupied territory of Ukraine.