Pro-Łukašenka party to help Russia with kids displaced from Ukraine

May 5, BPN. The pro-Łukašenka party Biełaja Ruś and Russia’s foreign aid agency Rossotrudnichestvo are planning to organize “mutual exchange and reception in Belarus” of children displaced from the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, said the party’s leader Aleh Ramanaŭ.

He said that the joint projects with Rossotrudnichestvo would be aimed at “helping” kids affected in the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk “people’s republics.”

“I think this is a good and interesting area of our cooperation, given that Russia has incorporated several new regions,” Ramanaŭ told journalists in Minsk today, as quoted by Russian news service Sputnik. “The situation there, at least in parts of these regions, is far from peace and normalcy.”

The head of the Rossotrudnichestvo office in Belarus, Yuriy Makushin, said “some initiatives involving Belarusian partners, including trade unions,” are already being implemented in this field.

Two months ago, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, accusing him of the alleged war crime of deportation of children from Ukraine. It also issued an arrest warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights.

Belarusian democratic forces are seeking a similar warrant for Alaksandr Łukašenka, arguing that Belarus has hosted children displaced from their homes in Ukraine.