Russia says it has been 'saving' children from Ukraine, not stealing them, despite widespread evidence of abductions

• A Russian official said his country is "saving" children that it takes from Ukraine, not "stealing" them.
• The deputy ambassador to the UN denied Russia was committing war crimes.

A top Russian official denied that his country was "stealing children" from Ukraine, and said instead that it was "saving" them, despite widespread evidence that Russia has deported Ukrainian children against their families' wishes.

Dmitry Polyanskiy, Russia's deputy ambassador to the UN, was interviewed by Sky News journalist Mark Austin, who asked Polyanskiy about Ukrainian children being taken to Russia.

"Russia is not denying that you are transporting children in their thousands from Ukraine into Russia. Do you accept that it is a war crime?" Austin asked.

Polyanskiy said that he did not, and that Russia was saving the children from Ukraine's own army.

"This is definitely not a war crime. We've been accused of stealing children but of fact we were saving children, from Ukrainian army first and foremost."

Polyanskiy went on to say that it is "just another smear, a campaign against Russia, this time unfortunately exploiting the issue of children at war."

In March, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying that Putin is "allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation."

During the interview, Austin read out the first paragraph of Article 49 of the Geneva Convention, which says that an occupying power cannot forcibly take children "regardless of their motive."

Austin said: "So you are committing a breach of the Geneva Convention."

Polyanskiy responded: "I do not agree. "

Ukraine's government said in March that, since Russia's invasion in February 2022, 16,226 Ukrainian children had been deported to Russia. It said 10,513 had been found, but just 308 returned.

A study funded by the US State Department found that Russia has at least 43 camps set up for the thousands of Ukrainian children, where they are taught Russian culture and history and trained to handle military equipment.

Many Ukrainian children were forcibly taken there, including orphans, the study said.

Polyanskiy said that five million Ukrainians, including children with their relatives, had come to Russia "voluntarily" since February 2014. That was the year that Russia annexed Crimea.

He said many came from the regions of Luhansk and Donetsk, where Russia-backed separatists seized government buildings in 2014, and that some were orphans, being taken in temporarily by foster families.

"So by blowing up this story again, you are neglecting the facts, you are absolutely neglecting the real situation on the ground," he said.

But Austin interrupted him, saying that Sky News had a video of Russian soldiers actively searching for children in an orphanage near Kherson, and that it knew of 15 children "taken by gunpoint to Crimea, then to Russia."

"They have escaped, and they have told us subsequently they didn't want to go to Russia," he said. "So what you did to them, if you read the Geneva Convention, is a war crime."