Kathrine Frich
When war crimes are discussed, officials usually deny involvement.
But in a startling admission, Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, openly described how she took a 15-year-old Ukrainian boy from Mariupo.
An on-air confession
In an interview on the Russian talk show Smotri i Dumai (“Look and Think”), Lvova-Belova recounted how she “took in” a teenager named Filip from Mariupol, a city destroyed and occupied by Russian forces early in the invasion.
She admitted that Filip “did not want to go to Russia” and was “annoyed by Moscow,” but claimed she eventually managed to “re-educate” him.
Her comments have been seen as a public confirmation of the very charges brought against her, the unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children.
Wanted for war crimes
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for both Lvova-Belova and President Vladimir Putin.
The court accuses them of orchestrating the mass abduction of Ukrainian children and their transfer to Russia, where many have been placed in camps or adopted by Russian families.
The Kremlin has dismissed the ICC’s actions as politically motivated, but the warrants remain active and publicly listed on the court’s website.
‘Re-educated’ to love Russia
Lvova-Belova said she met Filip during a “humanitarian mission” in occupied Donbas and brought him to Moscow.
She claimed the boy suffered from post-traumatic stress and displayed “a negative attitude toward Russia.”
“He said, ‘I don’t want to live in Russia. I love Ukraine,’” she told the interviewer.
“He sang Ukrainian songs all the time. I said, ‘Are you trying to provoke me by singing in Ukrainian? We are brotherly peoples.’”
She described how she tried to change his views, saying,
“He kept reading pro-Ukrainian websites while already living with my family. I told him, ‘You’re in Russia now, you need to change your attitude.’”
When asked why she adopted a child who didn’t want to be in Russia, Lvova-Belova brushed it off as “just a teenage thing.”
Defiance toward The Hague
Confronted about the ICC warrant, Lvova-Belova denied all wrongdoing. “
They keep promoting their myth that we forcibly remove children or re-educate them in Russian patriotism,” she said, though she acknowledged that her case with Filip was “one of the reasons” cited by the court.
She insisted she has never received official documents from The Hague, claiming she only heard about the warrant “from the media.”
However, the ICC’s records confirm that Lvova-Belova and Putin are suspected of being responsible for “the unlawful deportation and transfer” of Ukrainian children to Russia, an act defined under international law as a war crime.
When asked how many Ukrainian children have been taken to Russia, Lvova-Belova estimated the number at around 20,000.
Ukrainian authorities report similar figures: at least 19,500 confirmed abductions, with only about 1,200 children successfully returned home.
This article is made and published by Kathrine Frich, which may have used AI in the preparation
