Occupiers in the Kherson region have opened a "School for Foster Parents" for Russian citizens

While the international community is demanding the return of Ukrainian children who were illegally deported, the occupiers are implementing new mechanisms to remove them. In the temporarily occupied Kherson region, authorities announced the creation of a so-called “School for Foster Parents,” which is intended to prepare Russian citizens to become legal guardians of children.

This was reported by the Center for National Resistance.

According to the occupying authorities’ plan, course participants will undergo special training, after which they will be able to obtain custody of or adopt children located in the temporarily occupied territories. The aim is to create foster families for children left without parental care.

The Ukrainian side has repeatedly stated that such programs are part of the aggressor country’s systematic policy aimed at the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children to the Russian Federation. Instead of searching for relatives, returning children to a safe Ukrainian environment, or ensuring their right to remain in Ukraine, the occupying administration is creating mechanisms for their further removal.

“The particular cynicism of the situation lies in the fact that many children lost their parents precisely because of the full-scale war. Despite this, the occupying authorities are exploiting their vulnerability to place them with Russian foster families,” the Center for National Resistance noted.

In this way, Russia continues to integrate Ukrainian children into its own social sphere. Under the guise of “care” and “assistance,” conditions are being created in the temporarily occupied Kherson region that may facilitate the illegal transfer of children to Russia and their placement under the care of Russian citizens, which contravenes the norms of international humanitarian law and violates the rights of Ukrainian children.

In March, a UN international commission concluded that Russia’s removal of Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied territories constitutes a crime against humanity. Furthermore, the commission considers the delay in their return to Ukraine to be a war crime. 

Анна Бальчінос