President Joe Biden has claimed that Russian officials are “stealing children”
Joe Biden speaks at an event in the White House in Washington DC, August 16, 2023 © AP / Evan Vucci
US President Joe Biden has announced new sanctions on a childcare center in Crimea, claiming that Russian officials are transferring Ukrainian children there against their parents’ wishes. Moscow insists it is sending children to the center to protect them from Ukrainian shelling.
In a White House statement on Thursday, Biden said that the sanctions target those involved in “the forcible removal of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia.” The president claimed that “these children have been stolen from their parents and kept apart from their families,” demanding that “Ukrainian children be returned to their families.”
Some 11 Russian individuals were added to the Treasury Department’s Russia-related sanctions list on Thursday, as was Artek, a complex of nine recreational and educational camps for children, located in Crimea.
While Artek normally hosts children from Russia and surrounding countries for summer camps, it has taken in thousands of children from the formerly Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye since last year. Artek is one of several Russian-based facilities housing the children, who were evacuated due to the threat of Ukrainian artillery and missile strikes.
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Artek director Konstantin Fedorenko is among the individuals sanctioned, as is Vladimir Kovalenko, who runs patriotic youth camps in Crimea. Children’s rights and education officials from multiple Russian territories complete the list. The majority of those named, as well as Artek, have already been sanctioned by the EU and UK.
In March, the International Criminal Court (IOC) issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova on charges of “unlawful deportation and transfer” of children from Ukraine. Russia is not a party to the IOC’s Rome Statute and, therefore, does not recognize the jurisdiction of The Hague-based court.
Putin has insisted that Moscow is acting lawfully, stating in June that his government was “moving [children] out of the conflict zone [and] saving their lives.”
In some cases, Russian officials “evacuated entire orphanages, and did so absolutely legally because the heads of these orphanages were their [legal] representatives,” Putin said. “We were never against the children reuniting with their families, if, of course, their relatives were to show up.”
Lvova-Belova said in April that many children were placed in Russian summer camps and resorts at the request of their families. “They were moved voluntarily because their parents asked for a safe space where [the children] could continue their education,” she said, adding that despite some delays, the minors were regularly reunited with their relatives when they came to collect them.
