In the middle of Siberia, Roman Vinogradov plays with a group of children, while his wife, Ekaterina, reads a story to the little ones. Of the 16 children in their care, five come from Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia. The couple, met by Agence France-Presse in Novosibirsk, three thousand kilometers from Ukraine, say their mission is simple: to help these “children in need”.
Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, international organizations have accused Russian authorities of orchestrating the “forced displacement” of thousands of Ukrainian minors, which President Volodymyr Zelensky called war crimes and crimes against humanity. , seeing them as “abductions”, “forced adoptions” and “re-education” of Ukrainians.
Russia, of course, claims to protect “refugee” children. “What does ‘steal’ mean?” I haven’t robbed anyone,” Roman Vinogradov insists, and the kids “don’t think they were robbed either.”
He and his wife tell Agence France-Presse how they have found themselves since the summer of 2022 in charge of five Ukrainian children, who have added to their four children and seven others placed in their family. All are from Luhansk, one of the regions occupied by Russia, and where Moscow sponsored an armed conflict in 2014 by supporting separatists there.
Russian social services “called us and asked, ‘Would you like to take children from Ukraine? “, recalls Ekaterina Vinogradova. “We said, ‘OK, we’ll take them in,'” the 38-year-old continues. “What difference does it make?” Children remain children. Their nation doesn’t matter,” she argues.
The couple has therefore been hosting five Ukrainian children for six months, four girls and a boy aged between three and twelve. All have the same mother, who was deprived of her parental authority, and different fathers.
Agence France-Presse journalists saw this quintet of Ukrainian half-sisters and brothers having fun with other children, sledding for example, or helping with chores, clearing snow around the house. or by assisting in the preparation of the meal. According to documents signed by the authorities of Luhansk, territory of which Moscow claims today the annexation, the five children were placed in various institutions of the region of Luhansk before being transferred to Russia and then placed with the Vinogradovs.
According to Roman, the children no longer remember their mother. “The time will come when they will ask questions (about their past). So we’ll do some research. Maybe we’ll arrange a meeting,” Ekaterina continues. Roman explains that the children need time to feel secure in their new home. In kindergarten, “they were worried about whether we would pick them up,” he says. “They were like, ‘when are you coming (to pick us up)’ and ‘are you really coming or not? »
Under international law, no party to a conflict may evacuate children to a foreign country, except temporarily for compelling health or security reasons. In a report released on Monday, the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for a “concerted international effort” to enable the return of these children to Ukraine. “The return of children illegally abducted by Russian forces should be an international priority,” said Bill Van Esveld, associate director of children’s rights at HRW.
For its part, kyiv accuses Moscow of lying to hide these minors and make their return impossible. The Russians “refuse to acknowledge that these children were deported. Russia is hiding our children,” said Daria Gerasimchuk, Children’s Commissioner of the Ukrainian Presidency, again last week.
According to her, Ukraine has identified 43 centers in Russia hosting these minors. Children are “moved (from town to town) all the time”, she said, “we have evidence of the extent of the efforts undertaken by Russia to make family reunification impossible”.
According to Daria Gerasimchuk, it is “wrong to say that only orphans were taken to Russia”. Of the 16,000 children she accuses Moscow of having sent to its territory, only 138 were in orphanages.
She explains that others were separated from their parents by war or voluntarily by the Russians, who set up “filtration camps” in the newly conquered territories.
Moscow, for its part, ensures that it only thinks of the well-being of child victims of the conflict, like its children’s officer, Maria Lvova-Belova, who herself revealed in February on television in front of a president Vladimir Putin approves of adopting a child from the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
Daria Guerassimtchouk says that kyiv has therefore endeavored to shelter children accommodated in institutions in areas threatened by the Russian army. “We were sending these kids from homes to foster families so the Russians couldn’t identify them and move them,” she says. “But it didn’t always work out. »
Volodymyr Sagaïdak, director of a home in Kherson, a southern city retaken in November by the Ukrainian army after nearly nine months under Russian control, told Agence France-Presse that the occupation authorities questioned him about children and seized his files.
“No one said they wanted to take the kids. But I would say it was a disguised form of deportation, like saying, “Come on, let’s go on a trip”, “Let’s go have fun in Crimea”, a Ukrainian region under Russian control since 2014, he explained during a meeting in January.
A teacher at the foster home, Oksana Koval, said that after the Russian conquest of Kherson in the first days of the invasion, the officials of the center rushed to place the children with relatives or with the staff of the foster home. institution in order to hide them.
Oksana herself took in three daughters. “The Russians didn’t know we had the kids. They were told that the parents had picked them up,” recalls the 49-year-old woman. “Only one thing mattered to us: saving these children. »
