In the heart of the US capital, a fence stands adorned with 20,000 teddy bears to represent the Ukrainian children who, according to Kyiv, have been abducted by Russia, as war rages on.
Activists held a gathering of US lawmakers on Thursday at the somber display located a stone’s throw from the Capitol, with a simple plea: ‘Bring Them Home.’
“When you see the scale, you then start to understand how terrifying this is and that all this time, while we are waiting for some kind of negotiations, there is children’s life at stake,” said Mariia Hlyten, a 24-year-old Ukrainian activist.
“They have to be returned immediately, as soon as possible,” she added.
Congressmen Richard Blumenthal, Jamie Raskin and Michael McCaul took turns speaking about the plight of Ukraine’s missing children at Thursday’s event, coordinated by Razom for Ukraine in partnership with the American Coalition for Ukraine.
“What Vladimir Putin is doing here is not trying to take territory alone. He’s not trying to defeat a nation alone,” Blumenthal, a Senate Democrat, said.
The Russian leader is trying to destroy the people, and that is the purpose of abducting children, changing their names, and re-education. Killing their identity and the children themselves, ensuring they never grow up speaking their own language or knowing their own religion and culture,” Blumenthal added.
Democrat Jamie Raskin called Putin’s actions a blatant violation of human rights, international humanitarian law, and the law of war.
“It’s a war crime, and if it’s done intentionally, it is part of the proof of genocide,” Raskin said.
Hlyten’s relative, fellow Ukrainian Arkady Dolina, stood nearby with a large blue and yellow flag draped over his shoulders at the event.
“Absolutely horrible,” the 28-year-old exclaimed, referring to what he said was a vast number of kidnappings from occupied territories by Russia since it invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Moscow denies the claims.
“This is the continuation of a centuries-long Russian policy to abduct and indoctrinate kids and then send them as their cannon fodder to fight their stupid, useless, brutal wars,” Dolina said.
President Volodymyr Zelensky stated in February that Russia had brought back 2,000 Ukrainian children from its occupied territories, but thousands more remained captive.
In March, the United States announced the creation of a $25 million fund to aid in the return of Ukrainian children, a cause that First Lady Melania Trump has also spoken out on.
The International Criminal Court in 2023 issued an arrest warrant for Putin and his children’s rights commissioner for the war crime of unlawful deportation of children.
Kyiv mentioned that Russia has indoctrinated them, forced many to adopt Russian citizenship and tried to strip them of their Ukrainian identity.
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