"Additional citizens of Russia"

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In Russia, there is a state bank of data on orphans and children left without parental care. There they publish profiles of children who can be taken under guardianship or adopted. “Important stories” found that children deported from Ukraine appeared in the bank. The number of Ukrainian children to whom the Russian authorities openly seek a foster family can be almost two and a half thousand people. The system does not imply the search for Ukrainian relatives of these children who could take them under guardianship. In fact, Russia does not provide children with the opportunity to stay in Ukraine.

Together with Russia

“Cutting, paints, album - everything you need. I really like it, ”the boy says , studying the school set presented by volunteers. He has a cap on his head with the inscription "Together with Russia." This is 9-year-old Alexander Chizhkov, in the Television, he is called "a forced immigrant." The Russian authorities took him out with other orphans from Donetsk.

“Important stories” found that the questionnaire of Alexander and his two younger sisters-Valeria and Galina- was published in the All-Russian Bank for Data-orphans. It indicates that they can be taken under guardianship. The fact that these children were taken out of Ukraine is not said in the bank. Profiles appeared in the bank, presumably, at the end of November 2022-then their photos were added to the profiles of children ( according to the law, the authorities are required to regularly update photos of orphans, so the date of adding a child’s questionnaire to the bank and the date of publication of his photo may differ. - Ed. ).

The number of children from Ukraine, who are officially looking for guardians or foster families in Russia, can be almost two and a half thousand people. “Important stories” discovered this by studying the data of the Ministry of Education: in 2022, immediately in the 21st region, the number of children who were registered with the data on orphans data increased sharply. Together, these regions brought 2450 orphans more to the bank than on average over the previous six years. Most of these children appeared in the Rostov region (573 children), Moscow (460) and the Nizhny Novgorod region (388).

It is impossible to unequivocally argue that each of the 2.4 thousand “excess” children was definitely deported from Ukraine. But “important stories” found that at least two Russian regions of children exported from Ukraine are recorded in the bank about orphans. It was this that could increase the number of orphans in the bank compared to pre-war indicators. Some of the children before deportation were in Ukrainian orphanages, while others - parents died during the fighting.

“[Children from Ukraine] necessarily influence. We also have from the DPR, LPR arrives orphans. They change their place of residence and immediately, accordingly, are registered at the place of residence and without fail fall into the bank, ”the Ministry of Social Policy of the Nizhny Novgorod Region told“ important stories ”. The same was told in the Department of Education of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug: “Children also arrived from Donbass. They re -create a questionnaire, they [getting] in our data bank, and registering them for housing. ”

System failure

Earlier in the text, comments of Ksenia Hell were presented, who called herself an employee of the office of the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, but according to the Musa, she is not an existing court employee and was not associated with the Mus. We apologize to readers and the international criminal court.

As a rule, earlier the Russian authorities manually searched for suitable guardians for orphans from Ukraine - it was not necessary to enter children in the Bank. “Families are carefully selected taking into account their experience, these are professional foster parents. And children have the opportunity to preliminarily get acquainted with them through video communication, ”Maria Lvova-Belova, an authorized person in Russia in Russia, argued . With the outbreak of full -scale war in Ukraine, this system failed.

Photo: kremlin.ru

The International Criminal Court (MUS) considers the violent deportation of children with the occupied territories a crime-in March, Mus issued an arrest warrant of Vladimir Putin and the Commissioner for the Rights of the Child Maria Lvov-Belova. They are considered responsible for the organization of such a system in which children are taken deep into the territory of the aggressor country, not providing for the possibility of returning and searching for relatives.

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In institutions where hopeless children from Ukraine were taken out, patriotic measures are regularly carried out. “And only we, adults, are obliged to lay a sprout of pride for our great country !!! In the patriotism of our youth - the future of our Russia !!! " - It is said in the description of one of the events by May 9, which was carried out for the pupils of the first sanatorium orphanage in Nizhny Novgorod ( hereinafter, the spelling and punctuation of original posts are maintained. - Approx. Ed. ). There is 9-year-old Sasha Chizhkov from Donetsk and his two sisters, their profiles are published in the data bank of orphans.

The Russian military also comes to this orphanage. “Who, like not real warriors, can tell the children about those terrible military operations that are now in the zone of his. It is they, like no one, know how our guys show heroism and courage on the front line !!! It is very important that the children draw and receive information from those lips, namely from those people, from our heroes who themselves take part, and not somewhere from the pages of the Internet !! And it’s important, our guys graduates of the orphanage also left volunteers to the front in their zone !!! ” - It is said in the description of the meeting of the military with the pupils.

“This is what we remove fascism from the Ukrainian land. Nazis, enemies, Nazis, ”so the military themselves explain why the children were in Russia.

Pupils of the orphanage at a meeting with military photography: the first sanatorium orphanage Children are taught to weave a camouflage network: the first sanatorium orphanage

Also, the pupils of the orphanage are taught to weave camouflage networks for the military. “The weaving of the camouflage network is painstaking and in each of its cells, kindness and love are woven in children's handles, so such protection is more reliable than any armor !!” - The photo report says .

Graduates of the institution in which children deported from the Donetsk region are located in the war against Ukraine. The leadership of the orphanage uses their photos to advertise a contract service: “Looking into the eyes of our boys, listening to them, you proudly understand that these are not the playful and mischievous boys, but serious and adult men, the real sons of our Fatherland !!!‼ And if you, like our boys, are ready to defend their homeland, then get acquainted with information about the contract in contract in contract in the contract Armed Forces, ” they write in social networks of the orphanage.

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To the question of how 9-year-old Sasha and his sisters, deputy director of the orphanage, Larisa Grishanov, who are being taken out of Donetsk, feels that “normal”, but immediately adds: “Children, of course, violating the psyche. The boy, while he was in the “Swallow” ( a socio-rehabilitation center for minors in Nizhny Novgorod - approx. Ed. ), Laught repeatedly in a psychiatric hospital. He is engaged in a psychologist daily, because his nervous system is upset, ”she says. The child’s profile indicates that he is an “active, sociable boy”. “You know, neither Donetsk nor Donbass have nothing to do with it,” Grishanova continues, bearing in mind that the war in Ukraine did not affect the state of children. “This is just such a family, a loose, neglected family.”

Among these children, there are not only those who were taken out of the orphanages, but also the so -called “combat orphan” - children whose parents died during the fighting after the start of a full -scale invasion of Ukraine. “Of all the children who came to us, in my opinion, only one really had an orphan, the rest of the parents died there,” they told “important stories” in the Department of Education of the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. -Psychologists worked with someone, because some such terrible things told ... they were brought to an exhibition of weapons, and the children asked to hold the machine gun. We asked: why do you need to hold the machine gun? They say: I only charged the cartridges, but I never held the machine gun, can you imagine? The child came from there, from the fighting, he loaded cartridges into the store, fighting. ”

From Ukraine to the Far North

Beggarly exported from Ukraine, hopeless children are actively moved: they are sent from one region to another, returned to the occupied territories, and they are transferred between institutions. Because of this, their exact number is difficult to understand. According to Ukraine, by the end of March 2023 there were almost 4.4 thousand orphans and children left without guardianship - children from the annexed areas were also taken into account. The Russian side claims that "at different times in Russia there were 1.5-2.5 thousand children from dangerous areas of Donbass." This corresponds to the number of “excessive” orphans discovered by the “important stories” of the “excess” data registered in the Russian Bank. The mechanism of redistribution of children in different regions is also different.

The 9-year-old Alexander and his sisters, whose “important stories” profiles were found at the Bank of these orphans, initially entered the socio-rehabilitation center for minors “Swallow” in Nizhny Novgorod. According to the head of the center of Ekaterina Pergugere, the children were there for more than a year, and in early May 2023 they were transferred to the first sanatorium orphanage in the same city. Larisa Grishanova, deputy director of the orphanage, told “important stories” that children from a dysfunctional family: “Mother does not take part [in their upbringing] - as she drank in her Donetsk and drinks. The father there, in my opinion, is 70 years old or 72 years old. ”

Photo: Ministry of Social Policy of the Nizhny Novgorod Region

According to Grishanova, they have no other relatives who could take the children to themselves. When asked about whether they are looking for a foster family or guardians, she stated that “it’s hard to talk about it”: supposedly with her mother “not everything has been decided yet”. Despite this, they have already been submitted to the Bank for Data about orphans. The profiles of children indicate that the mother and father are limited in rights by court decision - such a decision is made if the child is dangerous to leave with parents due to circumstances independent of them (for example, in a chronic disease or mental disorder). If the behavior of parents does not change, after six months they can be deprived of parental rights.

In total, 14 children who were taken out of Ukraine got to the Nizhny Novgorod Center “Swallow”. According to the director of the Center, by May 2023 there were not a single deported child left there: they were either transferred to other institutions, or parents and other relatives took them in the occupied territories. The official claims that none of them got into the foster family. “We have gone only to blood families. To take someone’s foster parents, we didn’t have such people, ”she says.

Not all children were “lucky” to stay in Central Russia: several dozens of orphans got to the Far North-in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug ( the exact number of deported there is not known there, but in 2022, 71 children were registered in the region more than usual. - Approx. Ed. ). According to local officials, the children were sent to the region in agreement with the authorities of the so -called Donetsk People's Republic.

Children categorically refused to go here. You can’t take them by force. They were scared to go somewhere there to the Far North, where we live

“They were temporarily in the Rostov region. Initially, it was decided that they had to go here, but the children categorically refused. You can’t take them here by force. They were scared to go somewhere there to the Far North, where we live. One part arrived, then two weeks after the first children arrived, they constantly called up [with other children] on Skype, showed everything that was going on here, and the rest came with pleasure, ”the Department of Education of the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug said.

Officials argue that not a single orphanes taken from Ukraine to the Yamalo -Nenets Autonomous Okrug came to the orphanage: the authorities of the district and the annexed DPR agreed that all children would be arranged in families.

For example, the family of the Druzhinins from Salekhard, who already had 13 children, last year she took care of several orphans from Ukraine at once. Children were given to study in a local school. “In general, as a mother, I am very glad that now the raising of the flag and the anthem of Russia will be introduced every week. Children will teach children by heart. I am very happy about this. And lectures on patriotism - I directly asked the administration, and very glad, ” said Olga Druzhinina, who took the care of Ukrainian orphans.

One of the children who fell into the Druzhinins family was shot in a propaganda plot. They told how the first year of Yamal College Nikita Dyachenko spent his first scholarship on the medicines for the mobilized. “He came from Donbass, so he knows what needs to be,” explains Olga Druzhinina.

By December 2022, 21 children were in the Yamalo -Nenets Autonomous Okrug. According to an employee of the department, children continue to arrive in the district.

"The return system does not imply"

After the issuance of the arrest of Putin and Lvova-Belova, the Russian authorities began to gradually return the children from Ukraine. However, this applies mainly to those who have parents or guardians in Ukraine. The situation with orphans is worse: as a rule, they do not have legal representatives who could come to Russia for them. The Minister of Reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, Irina Vereshchuk, stated that Ukraine is ready to pick up the exported orphans on the border of Russia with any European country, but the Russian authorities are not told about their return.

Photo: kremlin.ru

To the question of whether the authorities plan to return the children to Ukraine, in the Department of Education of the Yamal-Nenets District reply: “They have the right to return. But however, they, like all orphans, use all the benefits and payments. <...> Suppose we have arrived 17-year-olds and immediately allocated money for this child, so that upon reaching adulthood he would be given housing. It was nice to see that the child had already received an apartment, and where he wanted. We have cooperation with Tyumen, that is, you can not only get an apartment in our district, but also in Tyumen - where he wants. ”

At the disposal of “important stories” there are profiles of more than 37 thousand children published in the All-Russian Bank for Data about orphans. If you are looking for a deported child or you know something that can help in search of children who have been taken out of Ukraine to Russia, write to the author of the investigation of Katya Bonch-Osmolovskaya in the mail Bonchosmolovskay@istories.media or in the reverse bot .

Editor: Ales Marokhov