Thousands of children have gone missing in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24. Mounting evidence suggests that at least some of them were forcibly taken to Russia. According to the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN, Serhiy Kislitsa, more than 234,000 children were taken to the Russian Federation as of early June..

Kidnapping of minors is a violation of the UN Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. But recent research suggests there have been clear precedents for such Russian tactics.. Australian National University lecturer Svetlana Chernykh and Oxford University lecturer Francesca Lessa write about this on the pages of the Washington Post..

In the past, authoritarian regimes in Spain and Argentina, having reached their most deadly and repressive phase, resorted to kidnapping children to persecute their opponents.. These historical cases can tell how Ukraine can bring criminals to justice.

What is known about the missing Ukrainian children?

Talk about the kidnapping of Ukrainian minors appeared on March 19, when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine announced the withdrawal of 2,389 children from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. At the same time, Deputy Mayor of Mariupol Petr Andrushchenko said that about 4,500 residents of the city were taken to Russia against their will.. The exact number of abducted adults and children is still unknown.. But much evidence suggests that we are talking about very large numbers.. In mid-April, the OSCE reported, citing Ukrainian officials, that the Russian military had deported some 500,000 civilians from Ukrainian territory.. Since then the number has risen. Kyiv estimates that 1.2 million Ukrainians were forcibly deported.

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While the war is going on, it is very difficult to verify this data, as well as to determine the whereabouts of specific children and families.. But reports of forced deportations to Russia and threats to Ukraine's most vulnerable citizens have alarmed the European Parliament.. Russian Children's Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova met with Vladimir Putin in March to discuss legislative changes that would simplify and speed up the process of adopting children taken out of Ukraine. In April, Lvova-Belova confirmed that 1,560 Ukrainian children were brought to Russia without their parents.. And they can be adopted by Russian families. And Russian Senator Lilia Gumerova openly complained that Ukrainian children " Therefore, she announced the launch of special summer camps for teaching Ukrainian children the language..

Regimes in other countries also abducted children.

Kidnapping and misappropriation of children by dictatorships is not new. The military regime in Argentina from 1976-1983, for example, was responsible for the systematic disappearance of some 30,000 political opponents.. But the regime also kidnapped some 500 children born while their mothers were imprisoned..

Because of the illegal adoption network, these children often ended up in the families of the military or police involved in the murder of biological parents.. In other cases, children ended up in orphanages or were adopted by families loyal to the military regime.. At the same time, false documents were issued that hid their true origin..

These children were treated as " But despite all the obstacles, the non-governmental organization "

A similar bitter page in Spanish history was only exposed in 2011.. During the civil war in 1936-1939, thousands of children were taken away from political opponents of the regime of General Francisco Franco.. They ended up in shelters or were adopted by families loyal to the regime.. The exact number of children abducted in this way is unknown.. But, according to some estimates, we are talking about tens of thousands.

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Women who fought on the Republican side had their children taken away by force. Thus, the Franco regime wanted to " Later, the illegal adoption network in Spain turned into a "

What does this mean for Ukraine

When the repressiveness of authoritarian regimes reaches its peak, there is an extreme dehumanization of their enemies that extends to children.. They are stripped of their innate innocence. History shows that these periods often coincide with the most widespread violations of human rights.. In Spain and Latin America, this resulted in mass executions of opponents and the kidnapping of their children..

In the war against Ukraine, Russia appears to be using the kidnapping of Ukrainian children to put additional pressure on the Ukrainian population and government to surrender..

Until that time, perpetrators of war crimes against children were rarely prosecuted.. However, the situation is changing. In 2012, a federal court in Buenos Aires sentenced former Argentine dictators Jorge Videla and Reinaldo Bignone to 50 and 15 years respectively for orchestrating the systematic kidnapping of the children of political prisoners..