Russian children’s rights commissioner, wanted on war crimes charges, describes life as the ‘adoptive mother’ of a deported Ukrainian child

Russian Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova said Tuesday that life with the 16-year-old from Mariupol who she “adopted” after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine is not always “smooth,” but that they “love each other.”

“I can’t say that everything is going smoothly, or that we haven’t had difficulties. It’s hard to know how to react when your child runs after your younger children, shouting, ‘I’m going to eat the Moskal.’ But I understand that this isn’t his fault; it’s due to the eight years of propaganda [he experienced in] Mariupol, anti-Russian propaganda. But we love each other now. My son has started to call me ‘Mom,’” said Lvova-Belova, speaking at the Russian Foreign Ministry’s press center.

Lvova-Belova first reported that she had “adopted” a child who had been deported from Ukraine in August 2022. In February 2023, she spoke to Vladimir Putin about the experience, saying, “Now I know what it means to be the mother of a child from the Donbas. It’s difficult, but we definitely love each other.”

In March, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants against Putin and Lvova-Belova for their alleged complicity in the illegal deportations of children from Ukraine’s occupied territories to Russia since the start of the full-scale war. Commenting on the warrants, Lvova-Belova said that she didn’t know exactly what she was being accused of, but that she “hasn’t received a single complaint about children being separated from their parents.”