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Mr. LVOVA-BELOVA denies the “expulsion” of Ukrainian children

Kyiv has been accusing Moscow for weeks of “deporting” Ukrainian children, estimating the number to be at least 20,000. In March, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in the matter, and the Hague-based tribunal did the same for Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova.

Allegations the latter denied during an interview with American media on Monday Vice News, claiming to have nothing to hide. “Funny. I’m a mother. That says it all. A war criminal? What are you talking about?” she asked. However, he admitted that several thousand children were taken to Russia in summer camps. “When the parents offered to send them on vacation for free, of course, everyone immediately accepted with joy. (…) These are children and parents who expressed the desire to become a great Russia” , however, he emphasized.

He also acknowledged that 380 children had now been taken by Russian families from Russian-occupied territories, and said he had taken a 16-year-old boy named Philip from Mariupol, but without “an ounce of politics”. “So I can say with certainty that I am not ashamed of any of my actions, because all this is done for the sake of children and for the benefit of children,” said Chutyk, the Russian children’s commissar.