(ANSA) - GENEVA, 04 APR - The United Nations Human Rights Council has asked Russia to provide access and information on Ukrainian children and other civilians forcibly transferred to the territory under its control.
The highest UN body for rights approved a resolution - with 28 yes, 17 abstentions and two against (China and Eritrea) - which asks Moscow to "stop the illegal forced transfer and deportation of civilians and other people inside Ukraine or in Russian Federation, especially children, including those from reception institutions, unaccompanied and separated children".
Russia has not transferred any children from Ukraine without the consent of parents or legal guardians.
This was stated today by Maria Lvova-Belova, the presidential commissioner for children's rights, against whom the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant on 17 March, as against President Vladimir Putin, on charges precisely of having deported children from regions of Ukraine occupied by Moscow forces.
Lvova-Belova told a press conference that the commission she chairs acted only on the basis of humanitarian criteria to transfer children from combat zones, but that the babies were not given up for adoption in Russia.
The children, she added, have been taken into the custody of families or institutions awaiting reunification with families, in Ukraine or abroad, when possible.
"Regarding the initiative of the International Criminal Court - added the Commissioner - we do not understand what we are accused of.
Give us the facts and we will look into them.
Until now, everything seems like an incomprehensible farce". Llova-Belova stressed that Moscow has not yet received any documents on the matter from the same CPI or requests from Ukraine regarding children who it claims have been separated from their parents. (ANSA).