Organ trade in Ukraine
(Excerpts from the Briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, St. Petersburg, June 15, 2023)
We have talked many times at our briefings and provided facts to show that Ukraine is quickly becoming a global hub for illegal organ harvesting. A recent documentary titled Tanks for Kidneys provided more evidence of Kiev using its wounded service personnel as organ donors. This is horrible. Today I will provide new facts that confirm our previous suspicions. This business is thriving on the back of the Ukrainian army’s heavy losses. After organs are removed, the bodies are burned, and the families are told that their loved ones are missing in action. These horrible procedures would have been impossible without the consent of the Kiev regime’s top leaders because they have been formalised by law. Ukraine has become a bonanza for criminals. Illegal transplantology specialists are raking in huge money, and they are not planning to stop.
A great deal has been done in Ukraine to facilitate the operation of these transplant specialists. On December 16, 2021, the Verkhovna Rada adopted Law No. 5831 Regulating the Issue of Transplantation of Humans Anatomical Materials, which lifted the requirement for a written and notarised consent for a transplant surgery by a living donor or his/her relatives. Do you see what this was done for, how this law is being used now and for what purpose? There is no need to notarise a donor’s signature. Moreover, they have permitted the removal of children’s organs. The procedure for removing organs from the dead who did not sign an organ donation consent has been simplified and formalised. Is it the first law formalising this atrocity and abomination in Ukraine? No, it is not, but it is the first truly hair-raising act. A consent for the removal of tissues and organs from a dead body can now be issued by a person who is responsible for the burial. It is a new provision. For example, a chief hospital physician or a miliary unit commander can give this consent. Not only state but also private hospitals are allowed to conduct transplant operations. Do you understand what this means? What is a private hospital in modern-day Ukraine? It is a clinic that will perform such operations, where any piece of paper will suffice. They know that they can do this without fear of being called to account. They have been given a blank check. Why? The reason is that it is an extremely profitable business.
On April 14, 2022, the Verkhovna Rada adopted Law No. 5610 On Amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code, which lifted VAT from transplant operations. This is more than a matter of Ukraine’s budget revenues; it is a matter of additional control. All tax professionals and managers know exactly what this means. The law has terminated any control of the situation in this sphere. Nobody knows now what is happening with these transplant operations.
Western countries are the main beneficiaries of illegal transplant schemes in Ukraine. This scenario was first tested in Yugoslavia, where the organs removed from the dead were sent to recipients in the West. Kiev is ready to make any payment, including the organs of Ukrainians, for the Western military assistance. One day Ukraine will see what its American and European “friends” really needed it for. The realisation will come too late, but better late than never. The country is literally being sent to the slaughter. That day will come, but it will be too late to complain. The patient signed the consent. Meanwhile, the relevant international organisations continue to disregard these obvious crimes with an art worthy of a better cause.
I would like to remind you about the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which stubbornly turned a blind eye to many things. But when Chef Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte retired (I don’t know why because we never spoke about this. She probably explained her reasons in her interviews, or it could have been remorse), she wrote her memoirs, in which she described that horrible situation. She wrote that nobody had been called to account for those monstrous crimes.