Ukraine seeks ICC warrant for Belarusian Red Cross chief over kids displacement

July 19, BPN. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has called on the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Dźmitryj Šaŭcoŭ, a senior executive of the Belarusian Red Cross Society.

Šaŭcoŭ admitted yesterday that the organization is involved in what he called recuperation programs for children from war-torn areas in Ukraine.

“We give them gifts. Together with [Paralympic athlete] Alaksiej Tałaj’s foundation we do everything to make children forget about the horrors of war, take a break and feel that there is an island of happiness,” Šaŭcoŭ said in a televised interview in apparent reference to the transfer of children to vacation camps and health resorts in Belarus.

“All those responsible for stealing Ukrainian children must be held to account,” Kuleba said on Twitter.

The European Parliament’s foreign affairs committee endorsed a report yesterday that called on the ICC to issue an arrest warrant for Alaksandar Łukašenka, like those it has issued for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his human right commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of forced transfers of Ukrainian children.

MEPs are expected to vote on the report in September.

The Warsaw-based National Anti-Crisis Management (NAM) has submitted evidence of Alaksandr Łukašenka’s alleged war crimes to the International Criminal Court (ICC), accusing him of the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children from the Russian-occupied territories and their indoctrination.

The evidence also implicates Union State Secretary Dmitry Mezentsev, Belaruskali CEO Ivan Hałavaty, Donetsk’s public figure Olga Volkova, and Tałaj, a motivational speaker.

According to NAM, at least 2,100 children have been transferred to Belarus.

Łukašenka, it said, personally signed documents for the transfer under the aegis of the Union State. Most kids were taken to the Belaruskali-owned children’s camp Dubrava, but also to other camps and health resorts.

NAM head Pavieł Łatuška, a close ally of opposition leader Śviatłana Cichanoŭskaja, accused the Łukašenka regime of imposing the “Russian world” ideology on the displaced Ukrainian children.