cahoots wrote: I'm glad that some have been returned .... what an awful thing to happen ... being uprooted from everything you know at such a young age must be terrifying.
It sounds like the world is getting smaller for Putin.
This story is not as black and white as the anti Putinists would have you believe. The children being spoken about were evacuated from areas of Ukraine that had come under Russian control due to the fighting, most had been abandoned or their parents lost in the fighting. As a result they were sent into Russian territory where it was thought they would be safer until long term arrangements, including reuniting them with any surviving relatives could be undertaken. Many of the others were from orphanages and had been there unwanted for years, these were adopted out to Russian families.
Now there is no doubt that a percentage of these children where relocated against their will, but this was the same for unaccompanied children on the Ukrainian side of the front line as well, difference being that the Ukrainians could claim that they were their children, though as said many were not being cared for or had languished in orphanages for years. Those in orphanages, when they were adopted, went to families outside of Ukraine, mostly to "rich" western countries, and this also played a part in them not wanting to go to the seemingly poorer Russia.
But all in all this is a propaganda exercise, neither Russia nor the US are party to the Rome Agreement and Putin will never be arrested or put on trial. As was mentioned the US passed legislation declaring that they could use force, effectively invade the Netherlands if any of their people ended up in the Hague. Several high ranking US politicians who where seen as responsible for war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan have outstanding arrest warrants. There were even attempts to execute the warrants when some of these individuals were in the UK, the UK Government prevented that from happening.
