Latest data may implicate Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko
Thousands of Ukrainian children were forcibly deported to Belarus in an alleged war crime in which President Alexander Lukashenko may be involved.
An estimated 2,150 Ukrainian children aged six have been sent to at least four camps in Belarus since September 2022, and the number is expected to reach 3,000 by the autumn of this of the year. Some of them are said to have received military training.
Evidence linking these crimes to Lukashenka and other Belarusian officials has been turned over to the International Criminal Court (ICC), reports The Telegraph.
“We want to show the world that such activities, organized by Lukashenka, are a war crime,” said Pavel Latushka, head of the National Anti-Crisis Management opposition group that filed the charges.
“In our opinion, [he] is the main [person] responsible for the forced transfer of these children to Belarus … he directly gave instructions on organizing the financing of these processes.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova have already received an ICC arrest warrant issued in March for the alleged forced deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia.
Now the ICC investigation can be expanded to include Mr. Lukashenko and other Belarusian officials. The court stated that it evaluates the information received and is «obligated to protect the confidentiality» of such communications.
It comes just weeks after Mr. Lukashenko, who is described as Europe's last dictator, struck a deal with the Russian president to take in the Wagnerian militia troops, who have mutinied against the Kremlin.
Mr. Lukashenko, whom everyone more often considered a puppet leader of a vassal state of Russia, this month also received Russian tactical nuclear warheads in another threat to Europe and the West.
Moscow began systematically removing children from Ukraine to Russia in the weeks before the invasion at the end of February 2022 of the year.
This practice continues, and the Ukrainian government estimates that over 19,500 children have been forcibly transferred by the Russian authorities.
Only 361 of them have been returned to Ukraine, Darya Gerasimchuk, Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for Children's Rights, told The Telegraph.
How Ukrainian children are kidnapped
More than 100 criminal cases have been opened in Ukraine on the facts of illegal forced deportation children, including to Belarus and Russia, said the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine.
From eastern Ukraine, Russia is «evacuating» alleged orphans to detention camps. Some of these children are then «adopted» into Russian families. Other children are sent by pro-Russian officials to “holiday camps” to never return.
It is believed that some of the children held in Belarus were sent to Russia, including to the far eastern regions of the country, almost to 4000 miles from Ukraine.
Ukrainian children held in Belarus usually travel via Rostov. -on-Don, a Russian city two hours from the border with Ukraine, from where Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of Wagner, recently raised an armed rebellion.
From there they are transported by train to the capital Minsk. Belarus, and then taken by bus to various facilities, including at least four locations identified by researchers and human rights lawyers.
Camps for Lost Children
One document seen by The Telegraph was signed by Dmitry Mezentsev, chairman of the Russian-Belarusian organization and former Russian ambassador to Belarus. He asks for cooperation between Belarusian and Russian state-owned railway operators to organize “the transportation of the children of Donbass for rehabilitation to brotherly Belarus.”
The document was presented to the ICC as evidence by the National Anti-Crisis Directorate, which is led by a group of exiles who oppose Belarusian government.
The organization also presented other materials, including reports from Belarusian state media that directly refer to the transfer of children on the orders of Lukashenka.
Three «camps» are located in the Minsk region, including the sanatorium «Ostroshitsky Gorodok», the national children's educational and health center «Zubrenok» and the children's camp «Dubrava», owned by the Belarusian state-owned fertilizer company Belaruskali «.
Fourth place — the sanatorium «Golden Sands» in the Gomel region.
1207 health resorts of Belarus map
Families looking for missing children “may not even be aware that their children are in Belarus,” says Kateryna Rashevskaya, a lawyer with the Regional Center for Human Rights, a Ukrainian NGO.
In one video submitted to the ICC as evidence, the Gruzdeva sisters, Belarusian pop singers, are seen talking to Ukrainian children in the alleged Dubrava camp.
“For us to live in peace, for Biden to die, God forgive me, for Zelensky to die too, and for Putin to prosper and take control of all of Ukraine,” the sisters say to dozens of children sitting in the hall.
According to internal documents and according to Belarusian state media reports, the number of children to be deported to Belarus is expected to exceed 3,000 this fall.
Belarusian children's camp
Russia says it is legally taking children out of the threat of war. The authorities are offering money to encourage parents to «adopt» Ukrainian children.
The telegraph also found that children detained in detention camps in Russia are forced to undergo re-education and beaten if they refuse to obey.
Ukrainian children are often told that they are Russian, forced to learn the Russian anthem, they only speak in Russian and teach to condemn Ukraine before adoption or upbringing.
In rare cases, there have been cases where children have received training in the handling of firearms and military vehicles. Mr. Latushka's group also claims that children held in Belarus are being taught how to handle weapons.
Human rights activists have expressed concern about Ukrainian boys in their teens if they turn 18 after being forcibly deported to Russia. , or territories occupied by Russia, they will fall into the mandatory age range for military service.
“The situation is very dangerous for teenagers; if they are 17 years old, and the boys are a disaster, ”said Ms. Rashevskaya.
“Upon reaching the age of 18, they will be handed over as cannon fodder for this war; it is a Russian strategy.”
The Belarusian government did not respond to a request for comment. In June, Lukashenka said that he offered Putin to take the children to Belarus.
The Belarusian leader said that he contacted Putin, and they agreed to finance the children's stay in Belarus from the state budget.
“This is how we started bringing them here,” Lukashenka said on Tuesday. “We help improve their health and they leave. They don't really want to leave.»
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