By Vestnik Kavkaza
Pavel Astakhov, Russian children's ombudsman, speaks about aid for children who live in the conflict zone of the Southeast of Ukraine.
Astakhov noted that “the number of complaints we receive increased dramatically after the beginning of the military conflict in Eastern Ukraine. The heavier the weapons being used are, the more refugees are trying to leave Eastern Ukraine. At the same time, there is no humanitarian corridor. Of course it is a great problem. One may ask why we are concerned about the situation in a foreign country. The reason is that Russia and Ukraine have a common border and Ukrainian refugees are arriving in the neighbouring regions of Russia. Many of them have children. These refugees should be accommodated, someone has to provide clothes and food for them. The first refugees arrived in February and these problems emerged at the very beginning.”
Astakhov emphasized that “we cannot ignore these things, we cannot be silent. We have to react. That is why I asked governors, cabinet members and the prime minister to prepare for the arrival of refugees, as we believed they were going to be numerous. Our first move was the establishment of regional staffs for refugee affairs. Such bodies were established in all neighbouring regions of the Russian Federation. Such staffs are normally headed by vice governors for social affairs. Each staff includes a local children's ombudsman and all officials responsible for accommodating refugees. The corresponding document was issued by all responsible ministers and governors. I was told that the government is going to issue a similar document as well. This will mean that Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev reacted to my appeal. It should be noted that these matters concern not only legal issues, but also the budget, because someone has to provide funds for accommodation, food and clothes for the refugees.”
According to the ombudsman, “fortunately it is summer now and the school year has not started yet. However children from Kramatorsk, Sloviansk and Lugansk have left home long ago and they have been unable to attend school. Now even schools and kindergartens are suffering bombardment. Yesterday one shell hit an orphanage. Fortunately there were no children there at the time. The future of orphans concerns us deeply. There 42,800 million people leaving in Ukraine and 90,700 orphans. 90,700 orphans is a great figure. In Russia this figure is 100 thousand, while the population is much greater. They tried to send some of the orphans to Russia, but they failed. The Ukrainian authorities issued a statement saying that this convoy with 200 people will be used by militants of the People's Republic of Donetsk for their own purposes. Thus we advised not to send these children. We simply could not guarantee their safety. They asked us to provide guards, to send special a contingent, but we refused because we cannot violate Ukraine's borders. There are now no Russian troops in Ukraine or even on the Ukrainian border. We cannot enter the territory of a sovereign state, no matter what is going on there. Even for such a humanitarian purpose. That is why what we need is to send humanitarian missions of international bodies to Ukraine.”
