SOS Children's Village spokesman: "We condemn every illegal adoption"
A ZDF report on Ukrainian children deported to Russia brought it to light. President Putin's child protection officer used an SOS Children's Village facility for propaganda images. The child protection organization rejects the suspicion of involvement and relies on clarification. Finding the truth is not easy.
"It hit us like a bang," says Boris Breyer, spokesman for the international aid organization SOS Children's Villages worldwide. He refers to a ten-minute ZDF "Frontal" report from the previous week, which deals with Russian child deportations from Ukraine. You can see Ukrainian children being visited by a good-humoured blonde lady – Maria Lvova-Belova, a woman close to President Vladimir Putin. The scene of the incident is an SOS Children's Village in Tomilino, Russia, near Moscow.
Ukrainian children turned up in Russian SOS Children's Village facilities
The 38-year-old Lvova-Belova, a member of the presidential party United Russia and Putin's "ombudswoman for children's rights", is - according to the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" in November of the previous year - the "architect of the repopulation" of Ukrainian boys and girls to Russia. According to the UN, at least 1,800 Ukrainian children have been taken to Russia since the start of Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine. The Ukrainian authorities speak of a multiple of that – 14,000 children.
In November 2022, the SOS umbrella organization learned that 13 Ukrainian children had been assigned to two SOS Children's Villages Russia facilities by the Russian authorities. "We immediately made that transparent on our website," says Breyer in an interview with the editorial network Germany (RND), "above all to ensure that the public knows about these cases and that these children cannot suddenly disappear somewhere". The 13 boys and girls are still housed there to this day, and there have not been any other Ukrainian additions to the Russian SOS Children's Village facilities. "As far as we know."
Child transfer is a hallmark of genocide
Putin's actions in his war of aggression against Ukraine, which began on February 24, 2022, included the kidnapping and Russification of Ukrainian children early on. The abductees are provided with new papers and are to be adopted by Russian foster parents. ZDF's "Frontal" shows pictures in which the smiling children are handed their Russian passports on a silver platter.
Former Federal Minister of Justice Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger (FDP) calls this a "war crime". According to the 1948 Geneva Genocide Convention, such a transfer of children is one of five characteristics of genocide. The effect of the ZDF images from Tomilino is of course harmonious: a friendly woman with neat children who were brought to safety from the war. Putin's propaganda uses the logo of one of the world's most well-known aid organizations.
SOS spokesman rejects the accusation of "involvement".
In the report, which can still be found in the ZDF media library, ZDF “Frontal” speaks of an “involvement” of SOS Children’s Villages worldwide. Breyer rejects this. “We condemn every illegal adoption. The fact that we were involved in this deportation system from the start is absolutely impossible and I strongly reject it.” The foster parents of the Ukrainian children were recruited by the Russian authorities and are also employed by them. SOS Children's Villages Russia only offers accommodation and psychological care here. "It's a pity that the impression of complicity is given at the end of the ZDF documentary."
The SOS Children's Villages Federation wants to clarify everything. Discussions with the Russian employees have already been held and are still taking place. But one cannot be sure whether the information is correct. Everyone is under pressure, everything you say can reflect back on you politically. It is therefore currently "difficult", according to Breyer, "to obtain valid, reliable information in Russia".
In any case, they want to make it impossible for Russian propaganda to use the logo again. Freezing financial donations to SOS Children's Villages Russia is one of the topics discussed. The SOS Children's Villages organizations in Germany and Norway have already done this.
Head of SOS Children's Villages Ukraine: Deportations are "great tragedy for our country"
"There will be decisions this week," assures Breyer on the phone. "Only one thing is certain - even in this situation, we would never abandon the children, young people and families in our care."
In a recent interview with the RND, the head of SOS Children's Villages Ukraine, Serhii Lukashov, called the Russian child deportations a "great tragedy for our country" that we can never come to terms with. "They are missing and we will have to find them."
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