Ukraine urges the ICC to issue an arrest warrant for the head of the Belarusian Red Cross for “deporting children”

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July 19 () –

The Ukrainian Foreign Minister, Dimitro Kuleba, has urged this Wednesday the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue an arrest warrant against the Secretary General of the Belarusian Red Cross, Dimitri Shevtsov, for the alleged “deportation of minors” from territories that are are under the control of Russia in the framework of the invasion of Ukraine.

“I ask the ICC to issue an arrest warrant for Dimitri Shevtsov, who has publicly confessed to the crime of illegally deporting children from occupied regions of Ukraine,” Kuleba said in a Twitter message.

Thus, he has specified that “all those responsible for the kidnapping of Ukrainian children will be brought to justice.” His words come after Shevtsov himself has indicated in statements to the media that the Belarusian Red Cross participates in the transfer of Ukrainian minors from areas controlled by Russian troops to Belarus.

In this sense, Shevtsov has said he was “outraged” by the fact that people consider that Belarus is “kidnapping children who have come to us to recover.” “To be honest, the Belarusian Red Cross has played and will play an important role in this,” he said.

“We take care of the children, we give them gifts, we do everything possible so that they forget the horrors they have experienced because of the war and that they are happy,” he said before stating that “when I see that Belarus is being accused, I understand that these accusations will also be transferred to the organization”.

Likewise, he explained that “the image of the country or of the Belarusian Red Cross or of the movement as a whole, which works to defend human rights and values, save lives and help those in need, cannot be allowed to be damaged.”