July 17, 2023 – Thousands of Ukrainian children have been forcibly deported to Belarus in an alleged war crime that could implicate president Alexander Lukashenko.
Some 2,150 Ukrainian children as young as six are estimated to have been taken to at least four camps in Belarus since September 2022, with the number expected to reach 3,000 by autumn this year. Some are alleged to have been given military training.
Evidence linking these crimes to Mr Lukashenko and other Belarusian officials has been submitted to the International Criminal Court (ICC), The Telegraph can reveal.
“We want to show the world that such activity [being] organised precisely by Mr Lukashenko is a war crime,” said Pavel Latushka, head of the opposition group National Anti-Crisis Management, which submitted the accusations.
“In our opinion, [he] is the main [individual] responsible for the forcible displacement of these children forcible displacement to Belarus … he directly gave instructions on organising the financing of these processes.”
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, already face an ICC arrest warrant, announced in March, for the alleged forced deportation of thousands of Ukrainian children into Russia.
The ICC’s investigation could now widen to include Mr Lukashenko and other Belarusian officials. The court said it assessed information received, and was “duty bound to protect the confidentiality” of such communications.
It comes weeks after Mr Lukashenko, described as Europe’s last dictator, cut a deal with the Russian president to host the troops from the Wagner militia that led a mutiny against the Kremlin.
Mr Lukashenko, increasingly believed to be a puppet leader of a Russian vassal state, has also this month taken delivery of Russian tactical nuclear warheads in a further threat to Europe and the West.
Moscow began systematically transporting children from Ukraine into Russia in the weeks before it invaded in late February 2022.
The practice has continued and the Ukrainian government now estimates that more than 19,500 children have been forcibly transfered by Russian authorities.
Only 361 of them have been returned to Ukraine, Darya Herasymchuk, the Ukrainian presidential commissioner for children’s rights, told The Telegraph.
