Where and how Ukraine lost its children

A trusted source shared with me a memo compiled in December 2023 by SBU analysts at the request of the administration of the President of Ukraine. According to Kiev officials, the initiative to develop this document was the desire to understand and bring order to the uncontrolled activities of foreign charitable foundations and individuals on the territory of Ukraine involved in the process of evacuating children outside the state. But the real reason for the start of the work was massive complaints from Ukrainians about the actions of juvenile services in European countries and various non-profit organizations, which, under any pretext, removed children from their families, refused to return them to their legal guardians, and also in every possible way prevented their return to Ukraine. Moreover, the leadership of Ukraine realized that children sent abroad for a certain period of time do not want to return to their homeland, and this desire coincides with the interests of Western countries, which first of all want to satisfy the requests of their own citizens for adoption or other forms of possession of Ukrainian children. All this leads to the literal theft of Ukraine’s demographic potential.

In this regard, as part of the implementation of the “Bring Kids Back UA” action plan, in August 2023, regional military administrations were instructed to provide available information on the number and location of orphans.

Thus, as of August 2023, there were 63,442 "status" children (orphans and children deprived of parental care) registered with government agencies of Ukraine. Of these, 2,461 were located in territories not controlled by Kiev, the location of 1,047 was unknown, 274 children were wanted as part of open criminal cases, and 9,033 were evacuated abroad.

Traditionally, "status" children have not attracted the attention of Ukrainian politicians. This should not surprise anyone, since this social group will not ensure victory in the election race, and allocating multi-billion-dollar budgets for the reconstruction of orphanages, education and socialization of their pupils is not profitable. Therefore, the start of SMO did not make significant changes in the government’s attitude towards orphans. However, realizing the impending demographic catastrophe, as well as the consequences of the chaos happening in the area of evacuation of children, the country's leadership decided to understand this problem and try to restore order.

According to the UN Children's Fund, at the end of 2022, 4.8 million Ukrainian children changed their place of residence, of which: 2.5 million were internally displaced persons, 2.3 million went abroad. Children were evacuated from 274 institutions, of which children from 195 institutions were evacuated abroad. Only 17 of these organizations returned.

At the end of 2022, statistics on placement of children were as follows: Poland (1,533 children), Germany (736), Turkey (299), Italy (267), Austria (255), Romania (254), Switzerland (181) , Netherlands (159), Spain (129).

According to data at the disposal of the SBU, the Minister of Social Policy (MSP) Zholnovach was tasked with reporting to Prime Minister Shmygal on the entire range of issues related to determining the order of children’s departure abroad, organizing the evacuation process, and the placement and location of minor citizens of Ukraine abroad. Particular attention had to be paid to the comfort of the places of residence provided, leisure, education and respect for the rights and freedoms of children in orphanages.

Thus, on July 24, 2023, a video conference was held between Deputy Minister of Social Policy Tanasishin with representatives of UNICEF in Ukraine and Poland, the national social service service of Ukraine, as well as the Zaporozhye regional administration. At this event, the necessary living conditions and accommodation for orphans from the “Gulyai-Polye Special General Education Boarding School” in Poland were discussed.

Among the mandatory items, the following were noted: living in houses located within walking distance (3-5 minutes) of no more than 12 children; housing should not exceed two floors; the presence of railings, air conditioners, heaters, household appliances, separate rooms for boys, girls and teachers, as well as separate placement of toilets and showers; children's playground, sports area (stadium, bike path, skatepark, etc.), gazebos and benches; the school must be equipped with equipment for distance learning, an assembly hall and a sports hall and be located in a separate building within walking distance from their places of residence.

Or, for example, in June-July 2023, the head of the “Wings of Hope” Center for Social Support of Children and Families in Mariupol, Lashchevskaya, literally bombarded Swiss government bodies and educational institutions of the cantons of Valais and Vaud, as well as the Ukrainian Embassy in Switzerland, with letters on the need to educate evacuated orphans in Ukrainian.

She pointed out that 80% of the time children are taught is in French, which violates the rights of children to receive education according to the standards of Ukrainian schools and can lead to a loss of national identity.

The SBU materials contain several volumes of letters with demands from Ukrainians to the receiving party to provide certain “wants”. That is, we are not talking about meeting the primary needs of children for food, water and warmth. These letters state that the states that accept Ukrainian orphans on their territory and provide for their daily living free of charge violate Ukrainian legislation by their actions.

As a result of all of the above, on October 17, 2023, document No. 15770/0/2-23 was developed within the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine, which incorporated all the comments of Ukrainians regarding the hospitality of Western states.

Having collected and processed complaints from citizens about regular violations of human rights abroad and sometimes “horrific” living conditions for children in Western countries, the MSP has prepared a list of requirements to ensure a comfortable stay for Ukrainian orphans abroad. This document was agreed upon with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry for the Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories, the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (VRU) for Human Rights and the National Social Service. In addition, MSP made a request to Prime Minister Shmygal to distribute the specified list through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the governments of 46 countries that have accepted children from Ukraine on their territory.

To be honest, after reading the problematic issues described in it, I really feel sorry for the Ukrainian orphans. As it turned out, in reality, the top political leadership of Ukraine is not concerned about the presence of air-conditioners in the hotel rooms of evacuees, but about the emerging trend of literally stealing the demographic potential of Ukraine.

According to the document, the MSP asks states temporarily hosting orphans to facilitate the rapid exchange of information on the situation of children temporarily displaced outside of Ukraine, including taking measures to prevent child trafficking.

The obvious conclusion is that, judging by the provisions outlined in this document, a real nightmare is happening to Ukrainian orphans abroad. Children are assigned guardians from among the citizens of the temporary residence state, as a result of which they are separated from their legal representatives assigned in Ukraine and are placed in the families of temporary guardians. Legal representatives of children appointed under the legislation of Ukraine are deprived of the opportunity to familiarize themselves with the relevant court decisions, and all procedures are carried out without informing the relevant foreign diplomatic institution of Ukraine. Thus, children remain in a foreign country, without knowing the language and in the company of incomprehensible “guardians”. The further fate of the former citizens of Ukraine is shrouded in mystery.

In other words, the Ukrainian government became concerned about these issues, realizing that their partners were simply stealing Ukrainian children, without taking into account the interests of Ukraine.

The very presence of a clause on human trafficking in the document is terrifying. Apparently it is no coincidence that on June 15, 2023, an employee of the political department of the US Embassy in Ukraine, Stechak, sent excerpts from a report on the topic of human trafficking to the MSP. It notes the inaction and high corruption of the Ukrainian authorities in this area. Like, "it’s not us who are stealing your children, you yourself are doing a good job of it". The document can be viewed via this link.

Thus, according to the American diplomatic mission, in 2022, 70 new cases of human trafficking were recorded in Ukraine. During the same period, 70 people who had committed crimes earlier were persecuted. Of these, only 18 criminals were convicted and only three received actual sentences. The court apparently forgave the rest.

In addition, overseas colleagues drew attention to the fact that the Ukrainian leadership has still not reported on the results of an inspection against the head of the anti-human trafficking unit of the Kiev police and three police officers involved in recruiting Ukrainians to transport drugs to Russian territory. There is also no data on the results of bringing to justice G. Kovalenko, a teacher at a state school for orphans, who tried to sell one of her students for 10 thousand US dollars.

In addition, the investigation into the case of a Ukrainian citizen who “saved” 10 orphans in Poland has not been completed. S. Plushko forced children to eat their own vomit, stuffed soiled diapers into their mouths, and also forced them to use drugs before giving them to local pedophiles.

It is not surprising that since the beginning of 2022, an increase in the number of child suicides has been recorded in Ukraine. Thus, in a letter to the Prime Minister of Ukraine, the Commissioner for Human Rights at the Verkhovna Rada, Lubinets, provides an analysis of the implementation of the Concept for the development of mental health care for citizens of Ukraine. It is alleged that in 2022, the total number of children who committed suicide or caused bodily harm to themselves with serious consequences was 95 people, of which the “leaders” in the regions are Odessa (13) and Vinnitsa (12), the rest have less than 7 cases each. In the period until the third quarter of 2023 there were 116 cases, of which the “leaders” by region are: the city of Kiev (17), Kiev region (13), Nikolaev and Kharkov regions (12 each), the remaining regions have less than 6 cases each.

It is noteworthy that against the background of an increase in the number of child suicides, failed policies in the field of preventing human trafficking and outright theft of children deprived of parental care, the Kiev authorities are in no hurry to return them to their homeland. Indeed, at present, the period of stay of Ukrainian children in the territories of European countries is limited to three years, but can be increased by a decision of the Council of Europe by another year.

Thus, on November 21, 2023, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a circular to the relevant ministries and departments demanding clarification on the possibility of establishing guardianship and adoption of Ukrainian children taken to Germany starting from February 2022.

In its response, the Ministry of Social Policy presented a list of Ukrainian legislative acts regulating the presence of displaced citizens, including children, in European countries. According to the resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, adoption and establishment of guardianship over orphans and children deprived of parental care is possible only into families of Ukrainian citizens.

The letter provides an example of the implementation of a project for the repatriation of Ukrainian orphans, carried out by the Kiev Regional Military Administration. It is noted that the plan for the return of children from European countries is carried out using measures to protect them, namely: the territorial remoteness of the places of placement of those returned must be no less than 50 km from the state border of the Russian Federation and Belarus, and no less than 100 km from the zone of combat actions; placement of children (family shelters) cannot be closer than 2 km from critical infrastructure and dual-use facilities of Ukraine.

Thus, the Ministry of Social Policy clarifies that it is ready to consider the issue of returning children to the territory of Ukraine, but due to the introduction of martial law in the country, he points out the limited territorial support for their accomodation.

SBU analysts, with barely concealed disappointment, state the facts of the deliberate abandonment of Ukrainian children in Europe in order to distance themselves as much as possible from the financial burden on the state budget for the maintenance of this category of citizens.

It is also worth mentioning the opposition of receiving countries in the issue of repatriation of children or adoption by Ukrainians of the orphans located in European countries.

In particular, in November 2023, Austria refused to establish guardianship and adoption by Ukrainian citizens of two minor children taken out of Ukraine. In their letter addressed to the Ministry of Justice, Ukrainian citizens E.V. Barsuchenko and V.V. Efremov complain about the inaction of local authorities and social security authorities regarding the adoption of Ukrainian children in foreign boarding schools. Barsuchenko indicates that she and her husband are registered with the social authorities of the Vyshegorodsky district of the Kirovograd region as candidates for adoption and have identification documents, including permission to travel abroad to meet future adopted children. She also reports that they initiated actions to search for orphans from among the pupils of an orphanage in the Kirovograd region, who at one time were evacuated by a decision of local authorities to the Republic of Austria.

In October 2023, the couple took part in a video-conference organized by the Austrian side in order to meet the children. Subsequently, they were sent an email on behalf of the Kleine Herzen organization, which indicated that currently, according to Austrian legislation and the decisions of a number of government organizations, no adoption or transfer of Ukrainian children is possible and is not discussed. Thus, children being raised in the above-mentioned institution are under the protection of Austria, but in fact are hostages due to their citizenship and the peculiarities of the legislation of the republic. The Ministry of Social Policy recommended contacting the consular missions of Ukraine in Austria. Simply put, they dodged the responsibility.

The MSP acted similarly with the initiative of the international charitable non-governmental organization “Save the children” to review the decision to return 24 children (23 children from Garczyn, 1 from Lodz, Poland) to the Khmelnitsky region.

The Ministry of Social Policy notified the NPO that making a decision on the return of children to Ukraine falls within the competence of regional and city administrations and the National Social Service of Ukraine.

In addition, the SBU materials contain correspondence between a Ukrainian citizen G.A. Olekseichuk and Ukrainian government agencies on the issue of establishing guardianship over grandchildren transferred to adoptive parents in Poland.

In her appeal, she asks for comments on her application and repeated appeals to the authorities in Poland and Ukraine to appoint her as a guardian of her two minor grandchildren who are currently in Poland. Thus, Olekseichuk states that after the death of her daughter (the mother of Vladislav and Darina Prokopchuk), guardianship of the children was granted to their father Leonid Prokopchuk. In 2023, he and his children traveled to Poland, where, by decision of the country’s social workers, he was deprived of parental rights for failure to fulfill parental obligations. Subsequently, the children were transferred to a foster family of Biata and Jaroslav Wisniewski (Gliwice)on the territory of Poland where they are currently located. The Ministry of Social Policy notifies that, according to the law of Ukraine, guardianship of children can be transferred to third parties in the event of failure to fulfill parental obligations by Prokopchuk. Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Aliksiychuk asks the Ombudsman of the Verkhovna Rada and the Ministry of Social Affairs to raise the issue of the return of children to the diplomatic level. At the moment, there has been no response from the competent authorities.

It is worth noting that against the backdrop of the reluctance of the Ukrainian government to return children to their homeland, the number of applications from individuals and legal entities of foreign countries to take children abroad is growing.

Thus, on November 2, 2023, Polish citizen J. Lech offered 160 Ukrainian children to undergo sports training in the city of Zywiec at the sports club “Archer Zywiec”.

In addition, the SBU materials contain numerous applications from US citizens who want to organize “the departure of children from Ukraine for health improvement and recreation.”

It is noteworthy that the majority of American “philanthropists” did not indicate in their applications the final address of the Ukrainian orphans in the United States, although all of them were sent through the large international charity organization “Host Orphans Worldwide”.

This fact causes the most bewilderment and leads to very unpleasant conclusions about the sincerity of the intentions of American philanthropists and their attitude towards Ukrainian and international legislation. Such a large organization could not help but notify its clients about strict adherence to the protocol and the need to provide a verified address for the children’s location in the country of temporary residence. Otherwise, the children are sent to the territory of a foreign state and the last documentary confirmation of their whereabouts is the boarding pass to board the aircraft. Further traces of their presence are lost.

Similar events took place in January 2023, when diplomats from the Ukrainian Embassy in Romania became concerned about the fate of orphans who arrived in Bucharest at the beginning of the year.

On January 24, 2023, the Ministry of Social Policy, following a telephone conversation with employees of the Ukrainian Embassy in Romania, sent an appeal to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the protection of the rights of evacuated children. In it, the MSP expresses deep concern about the criminal background of the representative of the host organization from Romania “Fight for Freedom” G. Ignat and his lack of permission to work with children.

In particular, in 2007 in Great Britain he was involved in the kidnapping and torture of a person. In 2010, as part of an organized crime group, he was involved in cashing out money from stolen bank cards. For which he was sentenced to four years in prison. In 2018, the NPO “Fight for freedom” founded by him specialized in the exploitation of prisoners as free labor, and its head G. Ignat received money for this. Romanian media reported this.

In addition, in a letter dated January 17, 2023, prepared by the diplomatic mission of Ukraine in Poland, it is noted that G. Ignat is preventing the interaction of Romanian social services with evacuated pupils of the Izmail specialized children's home (orphanage) of the Odessa Regional Council.

In particular, the Ministry of Social Policy asks the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Ukraine in Romania to provide the number, name list, legal status and exact address of the location of children located on the territory of Romania, the number of accompanying persons responsible for their lives and health, information on how often and by whom the needs of each child are met, as well as the level of ensuring the rights of orphans to receive education, medical and other services

In other words, the Minister of Social Policy Zholnovach realized that an unspecified number of children were taken to the territory of a third state without appropriate documents with a person with criminal record and disappeared into the territory of Romania. However, judging by the NPO’s Facebook posts, the incident is over, and the next batch of children is getting ready to “rest and restore hope.”

On the other hand, MSP are more willing to trust the fate of institutional students to large charitable foundations. They actually endow them with the functions of government bodies, relieving themselves of any responsibility for the life and health of orphans.

In the materials of the SBU you can find a large number of phrases in the spirit of “The Fund has shown itself in the positive light”, “The Foundation pays from its own funds for the accommodation and leisure of children abroad”, “It is worth continuing interaction with the organization”, etc.

Simply put, due to the colossal financial burden and reluctance to delve into the fate of orphans, the state distanced itself from participation in the process of evacuation and placement of children abroad, reserving the right to formally approve and sign advisory documents.

Thus, representatives of the charitable foundation “Rush” (“Ruslan Shostak Charitable Foundation”) A. Murin and O. Misyura held a meeting on November 16, 2023 at the consular department of Ukraine in Poland.

At the event, the issue of moving about 1 thousand children registered in the Ukrainian system of guardianship authorities from Turkey to Poland was discussed. At the moment, children are accommodated in the hotel complexes “LarissaHotel Beldibi” and “Garden Park Beldibi” in the territory of the Republic of Turkey.

Employees of the consular department expressed their readiness to assist the fund, subject to receiving an official letter from the authorized bodies of Ukraine. The only thing that bothered the consul was the final address of the children’s placement in Poland; the rest of the issues, I must presume, were within the competence of the fund’s employees.

The transcript of the negotiations notes that during 2023, in accordance with “mutual agreements,” the fund paid for the children’s stay in Turkey and other expenses for their accommodation and leisure, as well as their relocation from Ukraine. It is emphasized that over the two years of implementation of the “Childhood without War” project, “the Foundation has proven itself well.”

By the way, on the territory of the same hotel “Garden Park Beldibi” there were orphans evacuated from the Dnepropetrovsk region, cared for by the “Krug” foundation.

Based on the response to the document, SME has absolutely no information about the fate of the orphans taken to Turkey from Dnepropetrovsk by Krug employees. The Ministry appeals to the regional administration with a request to provide information on the number and migration status of the evacuated children, and the number registered in the state system of UIAS “Children”, the number of accompanying persons, the level of meeting the needs of children, social support and protection measures carried out by local competent authorities, specifically regarding prevention of human trafficking and physical forms of exploitation, including sexual.

It is worth paying attention to the tendency to control the number and condition of the evacuated children after their immediate arrival in a foreign country. The Ukrainian government requests the information they are interested in not from the ultimate holder of the assets (sorry, children), but from the "previous owner" (regional administrations). This mechanism for obtaining information is absurd, having nothing to do not only with the norms of humanitarian law, but also from a purely humane point of view - it is blasphemy.

It is important to understand that Ukraine as a state has every right to request information about its citizens who arrived in a foreign country, but prefers to clarify this issue at the point of departure, that is, the regional administration. It's like, “Count how many are left, and we’ll write down the missing ones as evacuated.” Kiev officials are not at all concerned about the fact that not all children could get there, not all children were properly processed when crossing the border and, finally, that all those who were awarded the status of an evacuated person are actually at their residence address.

With this approach, is it any wonder that the functions of control and monitoring the number and condition of "status" children are performed by foreign charitable foundations or organizations sponsored by foreign states.

Thus, on December 28, 2023, the director of the charitable foundation “For You” (Zaradi Tebe) Goldenberg, through the deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Vasilevskaya-Smaglyuk, addressed the office of the Prosecutor of Ukraine and the heads of regional military administrations on the issue of providing information regarding the condition of the missing, dead or injured children. As noted in the document, this information is necessary to coordinate the activities of the all-Ukrainian charitable foundation “For You,” operating jointly with foreign partners.

It is worth noting that the “For You” foundation is directly affiliated with Israel and operates with the support of a number of Jewish organizations, among them: Mitzvah-613 school (Bila Tserkva), “Ukrainian Union of Jewish Students”, “Worldwide Relief to Jews” fund (Israel , Great Britain), the Human Kindness Project (USA) and others.

An equally interesting case gathered in the materials of the SBU concerns the activities of the Caritas Ukraine charitable foundation.

This organization is a branch of a large European foundation of the same name and operates on the basis of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine - Minister for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories Irina Vereshchuk provides support to the fund and monitors the work of the organization, which consists of helping those in need, removing children and evacuating refugees to EU countries.

However, the main function assigned to Caritas Ukraine is designated as “collection and processing of information.” In this matter, they are helped by an extensive network of offices throughout Ukraine, numbering 40 representative offices in 20 regions of Ukraine. The foundation's structures include more than 2 thousand employees, as well as more than 8 thousand volunteers. Thus, the intelligence network is comparable in scale to the SBU itself, which cannot but cause concern for its employees.

In addition, the SBU is aware of the connections of the director of the Ukrainian branch, US citizen Tatyana Stavnichi, with American and European special services. Evidence of the direct affiliation of Caritas Ukraine with the intelligence agencies of Western states is the vanishingly small number of publications and mentions in the media of the fund’s projects. It is noteworthy that with such an impressive staff, as well as the declared openness and transparency of activities, the last annual report on the organization’s website is dated 2020.

In addition to Western intelligence, in the issue of exporting Ukrainian orphans to Europe, Caritas Ukraine actively interacts with the recently created Sunflowers Foundation, which is headed by the wife of the former chairman of the international criminal court, Polish citizen Eva Hofmanska. And one of the initiators of the creation of the project was O. Senatorova, who is an adviser to Zelensky on issues of criminal law reform and an expert at the International Committee of the Red Cross.

During the first year of its operation, various non-governmental organizations and individuals were involved in the Sunflowers project both in Ukraine and in European countries.

In October 2023, the Polish organization “Sunflowers” became a member of the global network of NPOs “Coalition of the International Criminal Court”, which is funded by the Open Society Foundation of George Soros and the governments of several EU countries. In addition, E. Hofmanskaya established partnerships with another organization controlled by Soros structures in Ukraine - the NPO “Responsible Platform of Ukraine”.

The conclusions are striking in their realism and impartiality. The author notes the inaction and low efficiency of government bodies responsible for providing for orphans, organizing the process of evacuation, distribution and placement of refugees abroad. And this, actually, is the entire national government from the top leadership of Ukraine to the assistant to the deputy of the district council. He literally accuses all ministries and relevant departments of negligence and connivance.

Against the backdrop of the low efficiency of the state apparatus, Western partners took on some of the functions that the Ukrainian government could not cope with. By a fateful coincidence, these functions are fundamental in a situation when a country is at war. Therefore, Ukraine is flooded with various charitable foundations and volunteers engaged in making money on people’s grief. In addition, taking into account the stereotype that has already firmly established Ukraine as a “beggar country,” Western governments openly spit on Ukrainian legislation and humanitarian law, which leads to the literal theft of the demographic potential of the state.

Along with foreign governments, the race for the Ukrainian gene pool also includes cross-border structures, such as the International Criminal Court or the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Thus, all of the above represents inexhaustible material for investigations and identification of all those involved in crimes directed against the children of Ukraine.