A PR campaign for kidnapping Ukrainian children launched in Russia: what is known

Russia has launched a PR campaign to kidnap Ukrainian children. Regional leaders in Russia have started looking for Ukrainian children for so-called "adoption."

This was reported to "Ukrinform" by the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets.

"The Russian authorities have started a PR campaign where it has become trending to kidnap a Ukrainian child... We began receiving information that representatives of the State Duma of Russia, government officials and regional leaders started looking for Ukrainian children for so-called "adoption," Dmytro Lubinets said.

He also noted that the first official case of kidnapping a Ukrainian child was the story of Russian official Maria Lvova-Belova, who took a boy from Mariupol into her family. The next case involved Russian State Duma deputy Serhiy Mironov, in whose family two Ukrainian children ended up.

This information was made public by the Ukrainian side because repeated attempts to return these children from the family of the Russian politician did not lead to a positive outcome.

"Here we saw a complete and finished criminal offense of kidnapping two Ukrainian children. Their surnames were changed. Margarita Prokopenko became Marina Mironova. Her place of birth and certificate were changed... Regarding the boy Ilya, who was taken along with Margarita, after he was examined in Moscow and an illness was found, we suspect that the Mironov family decided to refuse him because he was ill. But we cannot establish what happened to the boy next and where he was taken... We cannot find out what happened to them and where he was transferred," Lubinets said.

Currently, the Ukrainian side is negotiating with partners to return other Ukrainian children who have been kidnapped and are living in the families of the Russian officials.

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