Orphans and children deprived of parental care became a cover for close relatives of Kyiv officials to illegally travel abroad and avoid mobilization.
The Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmitry Lubinets spoke about the exposed illegal scheme. He explained that the employees of the Ombudsman's Office exposed the officials during monitoring visits.
Traveling Abroad with Orphans
Officials from the Kyiv Children and Family Service and the Center for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation of Children No. 1 sent their close relatives to accompany the children abroad.
Now watching
In March 2022, when active hostilities continued near Kyiv, 68 pupils, accompanied by 20 people, were evacuated to the former youth camp in the city of Wuppertal in Germany.
Among these pupils — orphans and children deprived of parental care or in difficult life circumstances.
This year, during monitoring visits, employees of the Ombudsman's Office visited institutions abroad where Ukrainian children are located.
Among them was the Center for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation of Children No. 1 in Kyiv, from which 68 pupils were evacuated.
— Reason — There were no escorts from Ukraine on the territory, and the children are exclusively under the care of the German side. According to the information of the German escorts, since the beginning of the evacuation there were 55 children, but in accordance with the order of the director of the Center, 68 were evacuated to Germany. Question: where are the 13 children? The monitoring group was never able to verify this data due to failure to provide information, & #8212; states Dmitry Lubinets.
What we managed to find out in Kyiv
The following unscheduled visits were carried out in Kyiv to find out the circumstances, review evacuation documents and communicate with management. According to him, the management did not have information about the situation in the institution.
— The Service and the Center do not have copies of documents or any documents on the conditions of children being under the guardianship of the German side. We managed to find out: among the accompanying persons during the evacuation, the official orders included people who have nothing to do with this area, and only the day before became employees of institutions, and some were never employed at all, — states Dmitry Lubinets.
The most interesting fact: among these people — close relatives of the heads of the Service for Children and Family Affairs of Kyiv, as well as the Center for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation of Children No. 1, the Ombudsman noted.
Among the accompanying persons there are four more people, the reasons for their departure require additional study.
The men resigned from their positions when they found themselves outside the state, none of them are yet working in these bodies, and later they did not return to Ukraine.
Only in 2024, the Ombudsman’s Office found out that pupils of the Center for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation of Children No. 1 in Kyiv were left without Ukrainian accompaniment. Access to these children must now be requested from the German side, which acted in accordance with their legislation.
Dmitry Lubinets has already sent the corresponding letters to the Office of the Prosecutor General, the National Police, the Ministry of Social Policy, the National Social Service Service, the Kyiv City State Administration, where he noted all the facts identified.
According to him, documents related to business trips abroad will now be carefully checked.
