Stealing Ukraine's Children: Inside Russia’s Camps

thank you [Music] Moscow has been accused of stealing over 19 000 Ukrainian children from war-torn areas and illegally deporting them to Russia how many of these kids are from Ukraine the people running with campus saying that this is not about brainwashing kids but at the same time you know there is a rustification going on here this is you wearing a military uniform with a Russian Z on it Twitter a reasonable grounds to believe that you bear criminal responsibility are you a war criminal [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] we're here in the town of corpanskin Ukraine which was occupied early on by the Russians since been taken back by the ukrainians and we're inside of boarding school which you can see has just been bombed to Pieces back in September when the school year started over a dozen Ukrainian kids were taken from here to Russian Hill territory for many parents that was the last time they saw them over eight months ago mikola cisenov was here on September 8th when at 1 35 PM around a dozen armed Russian soldiers turned up and started herding the children onto buses this is not an isolated incident [Music] easy TV from an orphanage in occupied Southern Ukraine 400 miles away shows chilling footage of Russian soldiers searching the building for Ukrainian children Moscow has been accused of stealing over 19 000 Ukrainian children from Wharton areas like these and illegally deporting them to Russia it's part of what could be one of the most egregious war crimes committed to date President Vladimir Putin and his children's commissioner Maria lavova bolova are accused of attempting to ethnically cleanse a generation of young ukrainians so these are the school records up here so you've got kids from ninth grade all the way through to first grade and this boy Nikita who's 12 years old born 2011. and his mum Oxana is still looking for him so far I've been unable to contact him Oksana stezenko hasn't seen or spoken to her 12 year old son Nikita since he was taken away eight long months ago are you two very close Mr but it is do you remember when you said goodbye to him remember the last time you saw him videos [Music] Russian soldiers took Nikita and 12 other children from kupiansk to a boarding school deep in russian-controlled territory we found the school's social media page which is full of hyper patriotic Russian content [Music] we showed it to Oxana in the hopes she'd spot her son among the thousands of photos posted by the school's Administration what now [Music] [Music] seems like a lot of Russian Flags I see um now Oxana must make the most terrifying journey of her life in an attempt to get her son back [Music] how are you feeling about this journey coming up [Laughter] [Music] so beautiful you're so brave going all that way [Music] Nikita is being held in paravalsk in Russian occupied territory to get him back Oxana must travel across Ukraine through Poland and Belarus into Russia and eventually to peravalsk [Music] with the help of the charity you save Ukraine over a hundred mothers sisters and grandmothers have made this perilous Journey already retrieving their own children but the Russian public is presented a very different story on Russian State media smiling joyful Ukrainian children are seen thanking Russian soldiers for saving their lives [Music] and program TV is full of stories about Ukrainian children being taken in by kind-hearted Russian Foster families like these five siblings from Russian occupied Donetsk who arrived in Russia last fall we are here in Russia right now we were really surprised to receive approval for our request to come and film here and to meet some of these Ukrainian children and see for ourselves what's going on we gained unprecedented access to a government-approved foster family to figure out what's happening to these kids after they're illegally deported to Russia how many of these kids uh from Ukraine wow Veda liver de Nova is the foster parent who took them in and an aspiring actress she has two dozen kids in her care and receives a thousand dollars a month for each she's also receiving government contributions to build her new home can you introduce me to everyone [Music] foreign I saw the video of you coming here on the train foreign you must have been very brave to come all that way do you miss anything from back home [Music] how do you see the conflict at the moment between Ukraine and Russia impacting children's lives right now episode [Music] some of these kids must have been through very traumatic experiences do they not belong in Ukraine is it not fair to say that these kids have essentially been stolen from a country yeah Networks [Music] so leave it alone in their best interests the Ukrainian children in her care have been illegally deported thousands more children from occupied areas of Ukraine are being held in repurposed summer camps in Russia like the ones found in these satellite images they stretch from Russian occupied Crimea all the way to Far Eastern Siberia according to a report by Yale University many children have been forced to spend months in these facilities without their parents consent [Music] this is the first time Western media has been allowed inside one of these camps where Russia says they're simply providing a few weeks respite for kids from war-torn areas uh [Music] on the face of it the kids here seemed to be having a good time but our guides including Alexei Petrov who's under International sanctions were determined we only saw what they wanted us to see foreign [Music] [Music] so how many of these kids here have received Russian passports recently [Music] it is hard to believe that these kids are really happy to become Russian and to you know come to Russia when you know the reality on the ground is this extremely brutal conflict that they've been experiencing themselves and so it's the hope that these kids want to stay in Russia it's interesting because you know the people running this campus saying that this is not about brainwashing kids at all but it's about rehabilitating them and helping them at the same time you know there is a rustification going on here and you can see that with you know kids talking very enthusiastically about Russia clearly we're only allowed to speak to certain people we are getting very heavily monitored hello Isabel we were taken to the gym where 17 year old kids from areas that were occupied by Russia last year were waiting to talk with us these kids had been pre-approved by Camp managers Camp staff were constantly present and a government-minder filmed our entire conversation it's unclear how freely they were speaking around the world there was a you know camps like there's a very contentious and there's a lot of accusations that the Russians have been stealing Ukrainian children is there anything you've learned since being here about Russia or Russian people um do you consider yourself Ukrainian or Russian s okay okay I understand Mario Paul was where you were born right I mean did seeing it get raised to the ground did that make you think differently about Ukraine or about Russia so I can't ask anything about the conflict we need to change the group or just finished okay um okay well I guess thank you very much for talking with us thank you guys we appreciate it [Music] clearly any questioning of moscow's version of events was off limits the woman determining the fate of Ukrainian children in Russia is Maria lavova Bulova Putin's trusted official in charge of children's rights she slammed as a child snatcher by the International Community and is accused of war crimes alongside President Vladimir Putin last year she lobbied Putin for a change in the Russian law making it easier for Ukrainian children to be given Russian passports this has complicated the process for Ukrainian family members to get their kids back this was the first time levovlova would sit down with a western journalist are these children being used as propaganda tools by the Russian state foreign getting these kids Russian citizenship could be seen as a form of wiping out their identity and as a form of ethnic cleansing um yes well I I would say it's a difference I would say it's a slightly different situation when it comes to Russia and Ukraine given that there's a very active conflict going on right now um you are accused of some very serious war crimes there are reasonable grounds to believe that you bear criminal responsibility for illegally deporting and transferring children from Ukraine to Russia are you a war criminal uh um but the convention also goes on to say that if they need to be evacuated for safety reasons they should be held in a third-party country why wasn't that done because nightshade absolutely this is not true we know for a fact that Nikita and the other children who are taken from the school in kukansk were unaccompanied when they were taken without their parents consent foreign foreign only kids who are back in Ukraine can really speak freely about their experience of being illegally deported artium is friends with oksana's son Nikita they were together when Russian soldiers packed them onto buses and took them away from their school his mum Natalia got him back in April photos it must have felt like such a relief after all those months how did you feel while you were there foreign we actually visited a children's camp in Russia and the government officials who were showing us around you know showed us kids that were singing and dancing and kids who were seeming to have a very good time that doesn't sound like that was your experience foreign oh wow so this is you wearing a military uniform with a Russian Z on it what was it you were studying here when you were wearing this foreign [Music] would be brainwashed into helping with Russia's military effort Oksana finally made it where Nikita was being held Maria levova belova shared the story on her telegram Channel in a Russian news report about how Moscow is helping Ukrainian mothers reunite with their children giving the impression that they're facilitating the process rather than systematically organizing their separation [Music] out of the many thousands of Ukrainian children have been deported only 373 have been returned home so far the rest remain in Russia separated from their families not knowing if they'll be taken to Russian Foster families or recruited into the machine of War [Music] is [Music]

Channel: VICE News

Views: 682,831

Keywords: VICE News, VICE News Tonight, VICE on HBO, news, vice video, VICE on SHOWTIME, vice news 2023, ukraine, war in ukraine, conflict, stealing children, abduction, Russia, ukraine russia news, war, war in ukraine channel, world news, ukraine war news, russia ukraine war russian, vladimir putin, children policy, human rights, united nations, ukraine children, ukraine news, war in ukraine explained, ukraine war news today, ukraine war with russia, russia ukraine war update today map

Id: RNAAC1kX5kE

Length: 20min 5sec (1205 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 28 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/AutoModerator]

Привіт u/SaSLazarus ! During wartime, this community is focused on vital and high-effort content. Please ensure your post follows r/Ukraine Rules and our Art Friday Guidelines.

Want to support Ukraine? Vetted Charities List | Our Vetting Process

Daily series on UA history & culture: Day 0-99 | 100-199 | 200-Present | All By Subject

There is a new wave of fraudulent donation requests being posted on r/Ukraine. Do not donate to anyone who doesn't have the Verified flair.

---

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

[u/DrinkingPetals]

Only a minute into this video, and their activities in russian camps sicken deeply me.

May the stolen children be freed from that hellhole. They must do what they can to survive until they are out of that system. Glory to Ukraine.

[u/Syne92]

Lvova-Belova has an evil grin of a demon with a terrible secret. Much like Putin.

[u/Longjumping-Nature70]

moscovia is strictly a criminal country.

Every adult there is in on the scam. They have zero morals.

[u/F1lthyAn1m4L]

I hope they get away. And resist indoctrination

[u/Odd_Wrongdoer_724]

Just watched this and I'm disgusted that the powers that be are not doing more to stop this. Russia must pay for each and every war crime and brought to justice. It should be publicly shown worldwide so all these Russian followers know what they are following .

[u/AmeeAndCookie]

Can’t get over how much Lvova-Belova is like a charicature of a movie villain. The wicked stepmom/boarding school manager…

[u/teratogenic17]

Hear me out:

I've spent my adult life trying to get Americans to cop to things like slavery, Jim Crow, Vietnam and its Phoenix program, the rape of Fallujah, et cetera. And it has been hard to live among killers. (Of course, most of us are fine, and the soldiers were only in a position to obey.)

But Russia today, oh my gods. Who are these people? The Wagner Group is one big war crime.

And the collective punishment of Ukraine's people is unjustified, brutal, and insane. Russians are not in control of their government either--they are also lied to--but they should be deeply ashamed.

I never thought I'd be in favor of shipping out American war material and training. Don't get me wrong: I know what the CIA did there...but today, well-- take my tax money.

I wish I had more money, I'd send it.

[u/b00tsc00ter]

Brilliant reporting.