New measures against a summer camp in Crimea are based on “odious” falsehoods, diplomats have claimed
Children celebrate the 98th anniversary of the Artek international children’s center in the town of Gurzuf, Crimea, Russia. © Sputnik
Russia has accused the US of “cynically” using children to settle geopolitical scores after the White House announced sanctions on a youth summer camp in Crimea.
Earlier this week, the administration of President Joe Biden unveiled measures targeting people and organizations involved in “the forcible removal of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia.”
The sanctions list shared by the US State Department specifically mentioned Artek, an international children’s center on the Black Sea coast which dates back to the Soviet era.
In a statement on Thursday, the Russian Embassy in Washington dismissed the US allegations as unfounded, branding them “shocking because of their odious, cynical nature, and faint-heartedness.”
Russian diplomats further accused Washington of targeting “the most vulnerable,” adding that the US is effectively punishing children “whose parents’ homes for more than nine years have been brutally bombarded by neo-Nazis, meticulously nurtured by the collective West.”
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Throughout the Russia-Ukraine conflict, both Kiev and its Western backers have repeatedly accused Moscow of illegally deporting Ukrainian children. However, Russian President Vladimir Putin has insisted that minors have been evacuated from the conflict zone for their own safety, stressing that the Russian authorities have never obstructed family reunifications.
According to the embassy, while Washington proclaims itself an advocate of children’s rights, its actions are “baseless, both de facto and de jure,” as the US remains the only UN member not to have ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Approval requires a two-thirds majority in the US Senate, although some Republican senators have opposed the move, citing concerns about sovereignty.
Russian officials also called on Washington “to stop its cynical use of children’s issues to settle geopolitical scores,” suggesting that “instead of moralizing, the US authorities should take a critical look at their own actions, including the supply of heavy weapons to Kiev.” The embassy claimed that these deliveries have resulted in the deaths of scores of children and the destruction of kindergartens, schools, and hospitals.
