The Telegraph on the deportation of Ukrainian children and the activities of the Fourth Summit on the global challenge of child protection

Global child safety remains a major challenge today. Lord Ashcroft, an international businessman, philanthropist, author and sociologist, reiterates this in his article for The Telegraph.

Officially, 19,546 children from Ukraine have been forcibly deported to the territories temporarily occupied by Russia, as well as to Russia and Belarus. In his article, Lord Ashcroft cites similar data: he writes of more than 20,000 children abducted by Russia. He adds that a report by the Yale School of Public Health has identified at least 43 camps across Russia and the occupied territories where Ukrainian children are being held and subjected to so-called re-education. And while Russian officials claim that these camps provide patriotic education, their real purpose is quite different. Children are being forced to adopt a pro-Russian identity, depriving them of their national and personal heritage.

Lord Ashcroft describes these crimes using the example of a young man from Melitopol who spent several months in a Russian prison. The author also names the main people responsible: Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova.

Among the examples of the international response to this situation, Lord Ashcroft mentions the Fourth Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen, which took place in Kyiv on 12 September and was dedicated to the theme ‘Protecting Childhood: Ensuring a Safe Future’. Among other things, the event addressed the issue of abduction and militarisation of children, and the Summit resulted in a declaration aimed at uniting efforts to protect the rights of children during wars. 

Another example cited by Lord Ashcroft is the Summit of the Future at the 79th UN Global Assembly, held on 22-23 September 2024, which also addressed protecting children in conflict zones. Among other things, the Summit Global Platform addressed this topic at the high-level event ‘Securing the Future for Children: Addressing New Challenges for Soft Power’, which took place on the sidelines of the Summit of the Future. The event brought together 10 First Ladies from Europe, North and Latin America and Africa.

You can find the whole article in The Telegraph by this link.