That we will identify more and more. Are there hundreds of thousands of ukrainian children deported by the Russian Federation, and why does the Russian Federation itself eventually talk about 700, and about 730, 740 thousand, who will give more, you know, as if there is some kind of undeclared competition, these are the children who, according to of their statistical documents, crossed the border of the Russian Federation, it does not mean that they are there now, it does not mean that they are children without bags. Im sorry, the Russian Federation itself, to be honest, has already said that mostly these are children with their parents, which by no means eliminates the question of whether such a transfer was legitimate and whether it is not deportation, that is, accompanying parents does not mean that it is a legitimate thing, a legitimate action, so i would say, and taking into account the experience of our organization and the fact that that we see how many children are taken away for various reasons, how many children could potentially be lost. Became war orphans and there is no information about them either, it is still not hundreds of thousands, it is tens of thousands of children, so it is not 20 thousand that now identified, it more, but i would not have taken it upon myself to talk about hundreds of thousands. And russia declares that it sends ukrainian children to socalled reeducation camps, what is this . For the Russian Federation, in fact, as she says, these are summer camps. However, what we are documenting are already autumn camps, and winter, and spring, and yearround camps, yes, absolutely correct, this is precisely the process of reeducation, this is when , in fact, concentrating ukrainian children in a limited space, these are former soviet, pioneer camps, summer camps, together, by the way, with russian children, and also together with children from the occupied territories for already, unfortunately, 10 years, in such a team the Russian Federation uses. Specially methodologically developed materials, organizes russification, political indoctrination, i. E. Washing of the cities, so that children became loyal to the Russian Federation, as to the aggressor state and the militarization of these children, and just recently, from fresh information, children who were taken to the territory of belarus from the occupied kherson region, it happened, they arrived yesterday, and they were taken out four days ago, that is, such a long journey, and one of the girls was small. 8 years old, she said that she knew how to use a weapon, that they were taught, they were shown there how and what this or that rifle was intended for, and of course it is a fact that a belarusian propaganda journalist said that it was a childs fantasy, but i would wasnt so sure because seeing their nonformal education, all these youth armies, the movements of the first and the Reeducation Program in these childrens camps, we can believe a girl who really now. Claims that they understand weapons at the age of eight, i understand correctly that russia is actually training janissaries, yes, it is training new soldiers for itself, it seeks to strengthen its own mobilization reserves in this way, but at the same time we also have it is to emphasize, to weaken ours, and actually this explains why there is such a large number of young men aged 1417 among the deported children. It is this group that is the most numerous among the children who were forcibly transferred to russian families, that is, there was only one intention so that they would not served in the armed forces of ukraine after coming of age, but even after the process of reeducation, reflashing, eradicating identity, they themselves would want to join the armed forces of the Russian Federation. In 2022, the socalled childrens shoemaker of the Russian Federation of lvivbilov. And i will remind our viewers that she is, according to the investigators of the International Criminal court, an accomplice of the dictator putin in the kidnapping. Children, she adopted a ukrainian boy, and what do you know about how widespread such a practice is now in russia . So im here right away because, if the team of lviv and bilova will watch our interview, we understand the difference between adoption and guardianship, and indeed, from the documents we saw, maria lvivova bilova established the guardianship of philip holovnaya, a boy deported from mariuppol,. In april of this year, namely on april 4, philip will turn 18, so unfortunately, we assume that knowing lvivbilova, she will want to take another child for herself in order to fuel this propaganda and encourage more and more. Take more russians into ukrainian families children, because unlike what russia broadcasts on the global stage, which is like the process of handing over for guardianship, not for adoption, as they say, ukrainian children after the start of a fullscale invasion. Lasted only until october 2022, this is all a delusion and a lie. We documented cases when russians handed over ukrainian children to their families in december 2023 as well. The process is ongoing, what we know about these families, they are mostly really so called resource families, that is , they also have russian children from russian orphanages, often these are children with disabilities, often these are really large family groups, and now among these children there are deported ukrainian minors. Who are their parents is rather obscure information, but putin and lviv bilova are carrying out the genocide of the ukrainian nation at the hands of teachers, that is , mostly among these families, among the professional segment of this segment, they are teachers, because they are easy to control, on the one hand, you control them through the authorities custody and care, because they are resourceful families, and on the other hand, because school directors, these glorious districts of theirs, the ministry of education and so on, that is. These people are absolutely so servile, this does not remove the issue of their further responsibility, but for our understanding they did not decide anything there, and all are as one, even in russian propagandist media testify that they were called by the guardianship authorities or the ministry of social policy and were told children are coming from donbass, that is, children, and we have documented, were coming from far away places, including, for example, from the occupied kherson region, they they were called the children of donbass and were handed over to guardianship, but the situation is even worse if we look at the territories occupied since 2014, because then the Russian Federation did not invent any temporary guardianships there, other forms of transfer to the family form of upbringing, that is, they immediately were given up for adoption, and now we see how children who were deported at the age of one or two spent 10 years in a russian family, and they do not even suspect that they are from the territory of the crimean peninsula, that they are not the native children of these parents and live yourself there become the letter z and tell russian patriotic poems about a special military operation, this is how the International Communitys complete disregard for this crime for 10 years works, and this is that the reaction, unfortunately, is so strong in the form of arrest warrants, it was appropriate , and we very much welcome it, but it is not enough to eliminate the longterm consequences of such policies and such illegal actions. Now we are talking about all this washing of cities, about the assimilation of ukrainian children, and a terrible thought arises, terrible the question is, if it is possible to return these children to ukraine, will they want it . This is a question that needs to be clarified, because if they testify on camera in russia that they do not want to return, or immediately after returning due to the fact that they were. Traumatized, retraumatized, even during repatriation, they will say , that something is wrong here, it does not mean that they really think so and that this is their position, that is, children should undergo psychological rehabilitation, children should have a special Reintegration Program and obviously a support program, we do not we are talking about the fact that each of them should be given, as russia does, apartments, cars and pay huge sums of money, because it will be at least unfair to the other children who suffered. From the armed conflict, but he asks and we do not want to buy these children, as the Russian Federation ultimately wants, we want these children to remain ukrainian citizens, to have this ukrainian identity, which in reality you can never buy, that is, the russian strategy is working, as long as they have money, when the money runs out, the children will pack their bags and go back, because what we see and what we observe, at least for a group of teenage children, is not so simple and not so effective, there are even. Russian for many years, probably from the soviet union tested manipulation strategies, and therefore, for example, now maria lvovabilova started such a new initiative from february 2024. When now not only children go to reeducation camps, but also members of their families, that is , it is probably calculated, first they will go there for such demonstrativeness, loyal to the russians, but then those who do not want to obey president putin will be forcibly dragged there and forcefully reeducated, there is such a twoway influence, through reeducating children they want to influence disloyal families, and through the search for some loyal ones. In this family they are trying to eradicate the identity of children, because unfortunately, sometimes we record such cases when the child does not want to go to russia, when the child does not want a russian passport, and he is just waiting for how to escape from the occupied territory, for example, or from the territory of the Russian Federation, and thats it connect here with some of my relatives, but i am one of the parents, or, for example, a grandmother or an aunt who, receiving certain benefits from russia for raising this child, are resisting, i would like to emphasize here that this is not. In no way deprive this child of the right to retain his identity and return to the territory ultimately under the control of the state of citizenship, and if such persons resist this, they will be accomplices of russian crimes, and therefore you need to think twice before sending your child to camps reeducation or to russian schools, if such a choice still remains, but actually russian propaganda claims that. That ukrainian children, who were returned to the unoccupied part of ukraine, that they allegedly want to return to russia, and isnt this a bell of the fact that can russia refuse to return them at all . I want to explain this situation, because they simply cut out part of the ukrainian airwaves, disturbed it there, and talk about the fact that even ukrainian human rights activists claim that the Russian Federation. Takes better care of ukrainian children than ukraine, this is a delusion, the cases when someone returned to the territory of the Russian Federation from ukraine, they are single, that is, among 388 children, maybe there is one person there, and then, if we look at his personal history, we will see that there are relatives in the territory of the Russian Federation, that there may have been some objective reasons why the child went there, maybe she did not return there to her permanent place of residence, therefore, firstly, this requires additional. Constraints, secondly, that, that which for some reason , the Russian Federation assumed that ukraine does not take good care of the returned children, which is also not true. We see that now, in connection with the significant attention of the International Community to the crime of deportation, as well as in connection with the fact that new and new initiatives are being created for the return of ukrainian children, their rehabilitation, these returned children feel quite well, so we still need to meet their individual needs, particularly in terms of bridging the education gap, which. Psychological rehabilitation, again i mentioned reintegration, but these children do not beg, these children are in family forms of education, or study in our educational institutions, that is, this is allowed by ukrainian legislation and are in other forms of care, these children have certain payments, these the children have the constant support of such a social worker from the state, that is, not everything is as bad as the Russian Federation wants to pretend, and i will only emphasize that now, not government organizations, but the state, are trying more to improve the situation of all children affected by the armed conflict, and therefore there will be special support programs, and there will be a special psychological rehabilitation program, but we must understand that, unfortunately, these are things that require a certain amount of time to prepare, in one day you you dont organize this. The Russian Federation has been preparing for the deportation of ukrainian children for years. Mrs. Kateryna. I know that you often visit abroad, communicate with our International Partners, in particular last year in november you communicated with un delegations and, if im not mistaken, they were given the concept of a single mechanism for the return of small ukrainians, in fact, to begin with, tell me what this concept is, and then i would like to know your observations and your. Conclusions about how determined and ready our International Partners are to help in the return of the children, or is it just another set of concerns . At the beginning of 2023, the team of the Regional Center for human rights conducted such a global enough study, we studied the experience of those states that faced deportation, the abduction of their children, the experience of identification, of return. We also analyzed the existing International Standards and international treaties, in order to adapt them to the ukrainian context, but again, on the other hand, not to invent a bicycle, some such. That no one has ever heard of and is unlikely to agree to, and as a result, we came to such an obvious scheme, perhaps for some, it is quite similar to the one that existed in the grain agreement, when ukraine and russia the federation, because the children are under its control, and we, unfortunately, without the complete surrender of the Russian Federation, without it , we will not be able to return the children now, so ukraine and the Russian Federation must come to an agreement, but this must be done exclusively through a third party, which will not. Its just that there is an intermediary to transfer some kind of list, as, for example, qatar is doing now, and which will also play the role of the guarantor of the return process, which will also agree on the simplification of the return process and on reducing its duration, on the unification of documents, which the Russian Federation requires, also accurately predict the categories of children that ukraine will return to ukraine, which the Russian Federation is forced to return, that is, there are a lot of functions for this third party. Roles, and therefore, returning to the question of whether all these initiatives are not just declarations, we must understand that canada, the United States of america, norway, they returned ukrainian children without joy today, all 1900 of them, but the Russian Federation never in its life will not agree to their mediation, so we we are looking for someone to whom the Russian Federation will agree, currently it is qatar, there are still rumors about some kind of participation. The vatican, but again, the ukrainian side does not confirm this, although the russian side there issued a whole report on the role of the vatican. There are also certain initiatives from the global south, in particular the south african republic, which i also visited, is interested, and this was announced by president ramaphosa, to join the process, effectively join the process of returning ukrainian children. And here we have to understand that it has ceased to be exclusively ukraines pain, exclusively a problem. Of ukraine, and it should already be decided, probably not only for ukraine. Now we have to take the lead and develop a return mechanism, exactly the one that is contained in our concept, is it possible to improve something there, i dont know anymore, it is so refined, you know, but so that this mechanism also works for other children who are currently suffering in armed conflicts, then the probability of returning ukrainian children also increases, the probability. Support of such mechanism is also growing, and such an important thing, which i want to emphasize, is that it is impossible to combine both the return and the prosecution of guilty persons in one mechanism, this does not mean that we should forgive putin and lviv bilov for deportations and say that we are not see, its very good that you returned the children, but it means that in the issue of return, the priority is return, and that in. A potential written agreement on the mechanism of return, there may not be a provision on the responsibility of the Russian Federation, but this, well, again, does not exclude such responsibility, and the International Criminal court will definitely not cancel the arrest warrants after the return of the ukrainian children. In fact, with regard to this warrant, almost a year has passed since it was issued, and what has changed in this case over the past year, and has the list of suspects been added