A Trump-Putin ‘deal' won't bring peace, just more Russification of our stolen children

The Age

2 days ago

When we see news about the meeting in Alaska between US President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, we should think about a specific group of innocent young people who could be strongly affected by appeasing the Russian dictator and global bully.
Namely, there are as many as 20,000 Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory who have been seized by Moscow into an elaborate system of relocation to Russia and so-called 're-education' there. As confirmed by independent international human rights organisations, these children have been forcibly separated from their families, language, culture and communities, and are now being artificially assimilated and brainwashed.
In fact, while Putin is guilty of many atrocities, such as bombing Ukrainian schools, hospitals and residential suburbs, the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children is the only war crime that he has been formally charged with by the International Criminal Court to date. He is the first leader in the history of a UN Security Council permanent member country to have been issued an international arrest warrant.
Indeed, some have suggested that Putin should be arrested immediately upon touching down on American soil. That would be just.
At a minimum, the captive children of Ukraine should hope that their situation is not worsened by discussions and decisions taken in Alaska – potentially without the presence or participation of Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky.
If, however, it is wrongly decided in some 'deal' that Ukraine should cede sovereign territory to the Russian Federation, such as further sections of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, then the missing children's further detention is legitimised. Moreover, it opens the door to thousands more Ukrainian children being abducted from any further territory that Russia occupies.
Ukrainians cannot abide some form of recognition of Russian-occupied territory as somehow Russian; they certainly will not agree to any more territory being given away to Russia. This is because – whether it's the example of the kidnapped children or otherwise – Ukrainians acutely know the horrific implications of being occupied by Putin and his henchmen. The price of peace cannot be the persecution of millions of innocent people.
Current occupation and any further occupation have the following features: erasure of Ukrainian language, culture and religions; removal of freedom of speech and assembly and other human rights; no independent media; incarceration of those who dissent; deterioration of social services and economic conditions, and skyrocketing rates of addiction and medical illnesses as drug traffickers exploit instability and corruption among occupational authorities.