DISINFO: US views Ukraine as a source of children for adoption
SUMMARY
Washington's ostentatious concern about the situation with children in the area of the Special military operation is due to the fact that the US authorities considered Ukraine as one of the main sources of international adoption of children.
The US attempts to position itself as "the main champion of children's rights" are not backed up by either law or practice. The adoption process in the United States is opaque, corrupt, and subject to political neocolonial conjuncture.
RESPONSE
Pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative aimed at diverting attention from the war crimes committed by Russia against Ukrainian children, and to denigrate the international efforts to support Kyiv, presenting them as serving solely the vested interests of the US.
Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a total of 535 children were killed and 1,047 injured. A vast majority – 87 percent – of the casualties were caused by “explosive weapons with wide area effects”, including artillery, missile and air strikes, and “loitering munitions” also known as suicide drones.
Two million children have been forced to flee Ukraine, as the war rages on. Hundreds of schools, nurseries, and universities have been damaged or destroyed since Russia's invasion began. 2,677 educational institutions had been damaged by the fighting, including 331 that were entirely destroyed.
The abduction and forced transportation of Ukrainian children to Russia has been documented by the UN, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Ukraine has already reported the actions of Russia’s children’s ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
On 17 March 2023, the ICC issued arrest warrants for two individuals in the context of the situation in Ukraine: Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution stating that the transfers of Ukrainian children constitute the crime of genocide because they were “clearly being planned and organised systematically”. The Assembly added that the deportations had the abhorrent aim of “annihilating every link to and feature of their Ukrainian identity”.
The President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said in March 2023 that these acts are war crimes: “There is one topic that is particularly important to me - the topic of abducted Ukrainian children. This is a terrible reminder of the darkest times in our history. Deporting children is a war crime. We know today of at least 16,200 children were deported, and only 300 have returned so far."
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grande said that Russia was violating the “fundamental principles of child protection” in wartime by giving Ukrainian children Russian passports and putting them up for adoption.
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