Russia opens “slave market” of stolen Ukrainian children — users can choose them by color of eyes
Russia has created a website to sell Ukrainian orphans. The website features faces, descriptions, and filters by eye and hair color, just like in a product database, reveals Mykola Kuleba, founder and head of the organization Save Ukraine.
“Russia has created an online catalog for the ‘sale’ of Ukrainian children,” he says.
According to him, since 2014, Russia has systematically taken children from occupied territories, Luhansk, Donetsk, and Crimea, to various regions of Russia. But now this scheme has transformed into digital child trafficking.
Filters, personal characteristics, and human dignity
Kuleba reports that the site allows users to “choose” a child by appearance.
“You can literally select a child by photo, with uncovered faces. They describe the children like products: ‘obedient’, ‘calm’, and so on,” he says.
He emphasizes the disturbing ability to sort children by gender, eye color, and hair color, calling the process nearly indistinguishable from slave trading.
Evidence found on official Russian websites
“Most of the children in this catalog were born before the occupation of Luhansk and had Ukrainian citizenship. Some of their parents were killed by the occupying authorities. Others were simply issued Russian documents to legalize their abduction,” Kuleba explaines.
He highlights the absurdity of Russia’s actions.
“When Russians demand lists of abducted Ukrainian children during negotiations, they could simply hand over the database from their own Luhansk ‘Ministry of Education’ website. The entire evidentiary base of their crimes is right there on their official resources,” he continues.
Kuleba pledges that Save Ukraine will do everything possible to rescue these children and return them to “what matters most — home, family, and country.”
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