Deported Ukrainian children arrive in Belarus, Lukashenko meets them - AP
Alexander Lukashenko, Belarusian dictator (Photo: kremlin ru)
Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko personally met yesterday with children deported from the occupied territories of Ukraine, reports the Associated Press.
The material states that Lukashenko openly disregards international outrage regarding his country's involvement in deporting Ukrainian children to Russia.
Addressing an event dedicated to the arrival of a new group of Ukrainian children ahead of the New Year holidays, Lukashenko pledged to "embrace these children, bring them to our home, keep them warm and make their childhood happier."
Belarusian officials did not specify how many Ukrainian children were brought into the country.
"A recent study by Yale University has found that more than 2,400 Ukrainian children aged 6-17 have been brought to Belarus from four Ukrainian regions that have been partially occupied by Russian forces," the material stated.
Child deportation
Since the full-scale Russian invasion began, Russia has regularly deported Ukrainian children to the temporarily occupied Crimea, Belarus, or remote areas of Russia.
The deportations became grounds for the International Criminal Court in The Hague to issue an arrest warrant for dictator Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation's authorized children's rights ombudsperson, Maria Lvova-Belova.
Recently, Dmytro Lubinets, the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Ukrainian Parliament, stated that Russia was using Belarus for covertly deporting children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
