Forum of the Crimean Platform demanded the return of abducted children

The fourth International Forum of the Crimean Platform discussed the fate of more than 200 political prisoners in Crimea and abducted children. The participants emphasized the need for their release and Russia's responsibility for war crimes.

This was reported by the press service of the Crimean Human Rights Group.

The Fourth International Forum of the Crimean Platform Expert Network took place in Kyiv, bringing together Ukrainian and foreign experts and government officials. Its main goal is to keep the topic of occupied Crimea in the center of attention of the international community and to develop recommendations for further advocacy, in particular on the eve of the Parliamentary Summit in Sweden.

The forum was opened by Olga Skrypnyk, Head of the Board of the Crimean Human Rights Group, who emphasized the tragic consequences of another massive Russian attack that claimed the lives of at least 16 people. She urged not to forget that Russian crimes cause death and destruction in Ukraine every day.

Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Ihor Zhovkva emphasized the need to strengthen international efforts to release prisoners, abducted children, journalists and human rights defenders.

Crimea has always been and is Ukraine. Ukraine will not accept any legitimization of the occupation," he emphasized.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mariana Betsa reminded that active documentation of Russia's war crimes with the participation of international partners is underway, and this evidence will form the basis of future trials. She also emphasized the need to achieve international recognition of the deportation of Crimean Tatars as genocide.

Olga Kuryshko, the Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, drew attention to the importance of supporting political prisoners through mentoring programs, as well as the need to name more than 200 prisoners so that they do not remain just numbers in the statistics.

Former political prisoner Vladyslav Yesypenko shared his experience of being imprisoned, where he was forced to confess to fictitious crimes. He emphasized that the selective genocide of Crimean Tatars continues in Crimea, with people being falsely accused of terrorism and sentenced to long terms.

Initially, the Russian authorities suppressed information about the abducted children, and Ukrainian inquiries about their whereabouts remained unanswered. In 2022, employees of the Kherson Regional Children's Home tried to save the children by hiding them in the basement of a church, but later the FSB found the children and took them to Crimea.

Many of them had parents or guardians, but the occupiers forcibly placed them in a Crimean children's institution with a bad reputation, and some of their profiles were later entered into the Russian federal database for adoption.

Анна Бальчінос