Russia’s Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, boasted about abducting a boy from the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol and taking him to Russia.
Lvova-Belova, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in connection with the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, shared the story about kidnapping 15-year-old Pylyp in an appearance on the Russian talk show ‘Smotri i Dumai’ (‘Look and Think’).
She said that Pylyp, who lost his mother aged 10, “did not want to go to Russia”, loved Ukraine and was “annoyed” by Moscow.
Claiming to have met the teenager when he sought safe passage from Russian soldiers after they razed and occupied his home city in May 2022, Lvova-Belova said that they bonded over time and she eventually asked him to join her home.
However, the teenager, who turned 18 this year, “complicated the family atmosphere” because he had post-traumatic stress from the bombardment of Mariupol and retained a strong attachment to Ukraine.
“He was constantly on pro-Ukrainian websites, and basically just reading all the propaganda there,” Lvova-Belova told the interviewer.
“He sang songs in Ukrainian all the time. I said, ‘Are you trying to provoke by singing in Ukrainian? We’re brotherly people….I have a great attitude towards the language and the culture.’”
Lvova-Belova dismissed his feelings as “just a teenage thing” and said that she pleaded with him to change his attitude towards Ukraine and Russia “for my sake.”
Over time, she claimed, Pylyp’s mind began to change and he decided that he preferred his new life in Russia, losing his desire to return to Mariupol.
When asked about the ICC warrant issued against her in March 2023, Lvova-Belova denied that Russia has committed any wrongdoing in its treatment of Ukrainian children since the full-scale invasion.
She said allegations “that we change their identity, that we re-educate them, that is, in Russian patriotism, that we send them to the front” are just a “myth” spread by Western propaganda, despite her admission of just that.
However, she conceded that relocating Pylyp to Russia was one of the reasons why the ICC warrant had been issued.
At least 19,500 Ukrainian children have been kidnapped by Russia since the start of the full-scale invasion, according to authorities.
Many have been subjected to forced re-education and militarization, including some who have reportedly been made to produce military equipment such as drones for Russia’s forces, according to a recent report.
Earlier this month, US First Lady Melania Trump said that she had been involved in brokering the return of Ukrainian children taken by Russia after an earlier plea to Vladimir Putin.