Rally in London in support of abducted Ukrainian children

[dolorosa_12]

One of the worst — of many — crimes committed by Russia during its fullscale invasion of Ukraine is the systematic abduction of Ukrainian children from occupied territories, endorsed and abetted at the highest levels of the Russian state. These children, most of whom have parents or guardians, are kidnapped and taken into Russia, where they are often renamed, adopted out to Russian families, and otherwise deliberately made as difficult as possible to identify and retrieve. There are tens of thousands of such children identified by the Ukrainian government as abducted, but the true figure is likely higher. Only a fraction of these have been safely returned home.

This Sunday, there is going to be a rally in London, organised by Ukraine Solidarity Campaign (a movement in which UK trade unions and other progressive organisations affiliate with equivalent Ukrainian organisations and groups; I'm a member through my own union), to highlight this particular issue, and advocate for more to be done to return these children home, and hold Russia accountable for this crime.

If you are able to attend, details of the rally are on the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign website. Please feel free to share this post widely.

Comments

[trepkos]

There's so much insanity at the moment ...

[dolorosa_12]

Indeed.

[blackcatofmisery]

I just watched some documentaries about child abductions recently! Russia stealing Ukranian children is the most recent abduction campaign, but there's a long history of it across the world, and it just sounds so bizarre. Like, it couldn't happen, because there are adults who know better than to kidnap kids, but apparently not enough!

=^..^=~

[dolorosa_12]

It's absolutely terrible. I come from a country with a similar systematic abductions of children by the state in its history (for similar reasons — to erase these children's cultural and national identity and transform them into the majority culture), so when I see modern instances of the same thing, it's instantly recognisable, and needs to be resisted by all means necessary.