Debate: Need to address the urgent concerns surrounding Ukrainian children forcibly deported to Russia
Date: WEDNESDAY, 13 MARCH 2024
Speaker: Jaak Madison
Political group: ID
Country: France
Language: EN

I would like to mention – because I have few minutes here left – they mentioned some kind of statements of the Russian propaganda, what we have heard for the last two years, and I’m afraid that there are very many people in Europe, and a few people in this Chamber, who also are believing this kind of propaganda. We have heard, probably in the TV channels or in the social media, that the Russians are actually protecting those kids because they are taking them away from the war zone and keeping them alive and safe on the Russian side. And that’s why they are like the real heroes and saviours, and we should be very thankful for the Russians that they are taking those kids from the Ukrainian side to Russian side. But the problem with the Russian propaganda is that normally something like 5% of it is true, and 95% of it is absolutely false, fake news, and this is also fake news. So it means that, for the Russian propaganda, you are attacking the neighbourhood country, you are killing them, you’re trying to occupy them, or you try to force them to do whatever you want they have to do. And then you say, ‘OK, but I will take those kids, thousands of kids on the Russian side, because we are the saviours, so we are the good guys actually here’. There are people who are really believing this kind of things. The second thing about the mentality of Russia, and there’s nothing new that they are deporting the people, so if somebody’s surprised in this House – because we should have one of the highest knowledge of the information above the Europeans – there’s nothing new of the Russians that they are deporting the people on the Russian side. That’s the old tactic. I would like to remind you, in about 10 days, there is an anniversary of the mass deportation from the Baltic countries. It will be 75 years when almost 100 000 people were forcibly deported to Siberia, to Russia, and very many of them died there – and the Russian propaganda, they are still saying today that actually, it didn’t happen, and if it happened, actually, they were the bad people. They were the capitalists who were too rich and they are taking money away from the poor people. But the fact is that 80% of them were kids and women, so I really don’t believe that the kids and women are really the capitalists who are like the labour people are forcing to the job. So it’s an old tactic for the lying and using the propaganda and the problem, of course, here is, now, that we are doing too less and too late. I was listening very carefully also to the representative from the Council, and it’s very beautiful and nice that we are opening all the investigations. Yes, we are putting the legal procedures forward, it’s great. Yesterday – I hope that you have watched this already – yesterday I was watching again the best documentary movie this year,  The problem is that we are taking too little steps to give the military aid to win the war, to really push back those Russians who are the real guilty and who are doing this kind of war crimes. That’s the only solution to end this war and help these kids.