Children should be able to study their mother tongue in Russia, says Tatyana Moskalkova
Ukrainian-speaking children in Russia should be given the opportunity to study their native language, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova has said.
In an interview with RIA Novosti published on Thursday, Moskalkova addressed the issue of displaced children and their education, including young people from the four former Ukrainian territories – Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, and the people’s republics of Donetsk and Luhansk – which were incorporated into Russia. after last year’s referenda.
“There were children saying, ‘We want to be in Russia, but we would like to continue learning the Ukrainian language.’ If it’s their mother tongue, then, of course, why not,” Moskalkova said.
She stressed that it was important for the Russian authorities to provide the necessary conditions”so that a family that grew up in a certain system could maintain its traditions and its language.
Moskalkova also addressed allegations that Russia executed “illegal deportation” children from Ukraine. The allegations prompted the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova earlier this month.
Moskalkova said she repeatedly raised the issue with Ukrainian officials, asking them to provide lists of children considered to have been “forcibly expelled”. However, the human rights commissioner said she had not received a response and discussions with UN officials had also failed to provide any evidence to support the claims.
“I contacted a representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees about this. According to the charter, they can speak with refugees one-on-one to receive information,” Moskalkova explained. She claimed that the representative ” said he had not met a single person who would be forcibly restrained [by Russia] in temporary accommodation centers or elsewhere.
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