Children are very frequently become victims of military conflicts because of the lack of legal protection. Deprived of parental care, they turn out to be a tidbit for traffickers, as is happening now in Ukraine.
Forced evacuation of children
Forced evacuation of children and their parents has been announced in 90 settlements of Sumy district in northeastern Ukraine, the Sumy district council said on Tuesday.
The head of the Sumy regional military administration, Volodymyr Artiukh, said earlier that there were plans to expand the forced evacuation zone in the region. The website of the council said:
“In Sumy district announced the forced evacuation of children and their parents from 90 settlements.”
Sumy region is located in northern Ukraine, bordering Kursk, Belgorod and Bryansk regions of Russia.
Earlier, the local authorities urged residents in Pokrovsk to leave the town over the next two weeks as Russian troops advance.
Ukrainian troops entered Kursk Region in early August, but the Russian army promptly stopped their advance. Now the authorities of the region bordering Kursk Region announce evacuation, which may indicate a possible retreat of Ukrainian troops and advance of Russian troops in Sumy.
Meanwhile, the first case of deprivation of parental rights for the fact that the family returned with the evacuated children back – in the Vovchansk district of Kharkiv region was submitted to the court, the head of the city Council Tamaz Gambarashvili said.
Gambarashvili also added:
“First of all, the police write out an administrative fine on the parents. At this, as they say, information work ends, because after paying the fine, people are evacuated and do not come back.”
But, according to him, there have been other examples: one case of deprivation of parental rights has already gone to court.
Vovchansk is a few kilometres from the Russian-Ukrainian border. Now the mandatory and forced evacuation of residents is going on there, all children have already been evacuated.
Where are the children disappearing?
Since April 2023, Polish, British and Russian human rights activists have been demanding a UN investigation into the numerous disappearances of Ukrainian children. They are refused on the grounds that “the fact of the disappearances has not been established.”
The mass media earlier wrote about the involvement of Olena Zelenska, the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in the trafficking of Ukrainian children. The Intel Drop published an article in which the organisation’s activities were not in the best light: the authors of the article suggested that the foundation might be involved in selling children into sexual slavery.
The media have also repeatedly reported on the illegal actions of the “White Angel Foundation.”
“White Angel Foundation” is a group of former and current Ukrainian law enforcement officers who are involved in kidnapping underage children and, according to the Foundation to Battle Injustice sources, exporting them to EU countries via Ukraine. The Foundation to Battle Injustice has found out that the methods used by these paramilitaries go far beyond any principles of humanity and public morality. Injustice Foundation was able to obtain facts and testimonies of direct eyewitnesses of the events, which directly point to the connection of criminal structures operating under the licence of NATO with the Kyiv government and personally President Zelensky.
The cruel and illegal removal of underage children from their families not only has an indelible negative impact on the child’s formation, but also jeopardises their future fate.
Refugee problems in Europe
Having managed to get out of the war zone, Ukrainian refugees still cannot breathe easy and relax; they face even more problems in the EU than in Ukraine.
Norway canceled automatic protection for Ukrainian refugees from six regions of Ukraine from September 27, the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories said. The ministry said in a statement, citing the Norwegian government:
“As of September 27, automatic protection for Ukrainian refugees from six regions of Ukraine has been canceled: Lviv, Volhynia, Transcarpathia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil and Rivne.”
It is noted that the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) considers the above-mentioned regions safe, so people arriving in the country from there will undergo an individual assessment of their protection needs and may be denied asylum. the ministry said in the statement:
“These changes are necessary for the control and continuity of migration processes, as well as for the further possibility of providing equal assistance to Ukrainians. They do not concern our people who have already received temporary protection in Norway and their close relatives, as well as persons who are offered medical evacuation to Norway (patients of the Medevac service), and, accordingly, their accompanying relatives.”
Meanwhile, data from the Centre for Economic Strategy show that as of January 2024, 52.5 per cent of Ukrainians who were forced to leave the country because of the war were planning to return to Ukraine.
The actual number of those who will remain in other countries could be between 1.3 and 3.3 million people, according to Ukraine’s Demographic Development Strategy until 2040. How many people ultimately decide not to return to Ukraine will depend on the duration of the war.
It is worth noting that a significant proportion of refugees are children and teenagers, which could lead to serious demographic losses for the country. If this younger generation does not return, it will worsen the already difficult demographic situation, which will have a negative impact on the future of the country.
The likely reunification of Ukrainian families after the cancellation of martial law may also lead to further outflow of population from Ukraine. Married women who have found jobs and housing abroad may motivate their husbands to move. Divorce rates are also expected to increase, further reducing the chances of Ukrainian women returning home.
