JRL NEWSWATCH: “Using Adoptions, Russia Turns Ukrainian Children Into Spoils of War” – New York Times

“Thousands of Ukrainian children have been transferred to Russia. ‘I didn’t want to go,’ one girl told The New York Times from a foster home near Moscow.”

“As … children fled bombed-out group homes and boarding schools[,] [s]eparated from … families, they followed neighbors or strangers heading west, seeking the relative safety of central Ukraine. … [P]ro-Russia forces intercepted them, according to … the children, witnesses and family members. … put[ting] them on buses headed deeper into Russian-held territory. … Russian authorities … announced with patriotic fanfare the transfer of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia to be adopted and become citizens. … portray[ing] [them] as abandoned children … rescued from war. … [T]his mass transfer of children is a potential war crime, regardless of whether they were orphans. … [They] also took children whose relatives or guardians want them back …. As Russian troops pushed into Ukraine, children … fleeing newly occupied territories were swept up[,] [s]ome … [reportedly] taken after their parents … [were] killed or imprisoned by Russian troops …. [Putin’s] government has used children — including the sick, poor and orphaned … [in] a propaganda campaign presenting Russia as a charitable savior. …”

Click here for: “Using Adoptions, Russia Turns Ukrainian Children Into Spoils of War: Thousands of Ukrainian children have been transferred to Russia. ‘I didn’t want to go,” one girl told The New York Times from a foster home near Moscow.’ – New York Times/ Emma Bubola