In October 2021 Vladimir Putin appointed Maria Lvova-Belova as the children’s rights commissioner and she is wanted for war crimes and has said she is “not ashamed of anything.”
She stands accused of deporting young children to Russia and claims to the “saviour” of Ukrainian children who have been caught up in the war.
Putin was told in March by Lvova-Belova that he is allowed to “adopt” a 15-year old boy from the destroyed city of Mariupol.
She said in an interview with Vice News that she is not war criminal and that she is a “mother” and that the “so-called deportation of children” was “an evacuation from shelling” in eastern Ukraine.
She is fostering the 15-year old boy from Mariupol and was asked about him, she said, “When it comes to Philip, my heart called me to him.
“He was in a group we evacuated from Mariupol after the hostilities ceased. They were found inside basements. A group of 31 children. They were mainly teenagers.
“We talked to Philip and my heart fluttered, and I realised that he was my child.
“As far as having him in our family, it’s always a tricky situation when you foster a child no matter where he is from. That’s why over the year Philip has been with us, we’ve been adapting.
“We love each other madly, that’s a fact.”
Also an arrest warrant has been issued for the Russia leader by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for the illegal deportation of children from Ukraine.
The ICC’s top lawyer, Karim Khan KC who is the chief prosecutor has previously said he is confident that Putin will stand trial for war crimes.
A top EU official has said that arrest warrant issued by the ICC for the Russian leader over war crimes “marks the beginning of holding Russia accountable” for the heinous crimes committed in Ukraine.
Josep Borrell said this is symbolic that Europe is once again ready to stand ready to hold a world leader accountable for war crimes committed in the full scale invasion of Ukraine.
