Ukraine is angry about a new rule signed by President Putin that allows Russian citizenship to be given to Ukrainian children who go to live in Russia.
In March, the International Criminal Court ordered the arrest of President Putin because Russia was sending children away against their will.
The Ukraine government said the order was against the law.
However, Russia says it is taking the children away from danger.
On 4 January, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a decision to speed up the process for foreigners and people without a country to become Russian citizens.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry said that Ukrainian children without parents can quickly become Russian citizens if the president allows it or if the institution taking care of them asks for it.
The rule says that a child’s legal guardian or the head of a Russian organization in charge of the child can apply for their citizenship.
The Ukrainian government believes that Russia is trying to fix its population problem by taking children from Ukraine. This is against the laws of Ukraine and other countries, and it is also not fair to the children.
The ministry said that the decree shows that Russia is trying to make Ukrainian children act like Russians, and that they are also committing crimes against Ukraine.
Ukraine’s human rights leader, Dmytro Lubinets, says that Russia is giving citizenship to the children so that they won’t be seen as Ukrainians moved to Russia.
The Ukrainian government found out that more than 19,000 Ukrainian kids were sent to Russia since the big attack started in February 2022.
According to the Children of War database in Ukraine, only 387 kids have been brought back.
In November 2023, the BBC’s Panorama TV show said that a friend of Mr. Putin adopted a child taken from a Ukrainian children’s home.
Sergey Mironov, a 70-year-old leader of a Russian political party, is listed as the adoptive parent of a two-year-old girl who was taken in 2022 by the woman he is now married to, according to documents seen by Panorama.
In March, the International Criminal Court said that Mr Putin might have committed war crimes in Ukraine and they want to arrest him. The ICC said he was in charge of taking children from Ukraine to Russia in a way that was against the law.
Maria Lvova-Belova, a person from Russia who helps children, was accused of the same things. ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said it’s not right to use children as prizes in war, and that Putin might be brought to trial.
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Anger over a Russian move against Ukrainian youngsters
