Lukashenko says he will take Ukrainian children to Belarus and is not afraid of criminal charges

Self-proclaimed President Alexander Lukashenko said that Belarus will continue the abduction of Ukrainian children out of the Donbas, despite the criminal liability for doing so.

Source: Lukashenkoʼs press service; BelTA, referring to Lukashenko's statements during "communication with employees" at the Minsk airport

Details: According to BelTA, Lukashenko said he "had planned and plans" to engage in the so-called "rehabilitation" of Ukrainian children from Donbas in Belarus.

Quote: "And the fact that Westerners are trying to violate, almost bring to criminal responsibility, is ridiculous. We have agreed with Putin that we will finance these trips from the union budget."

Background: 

• In June, the Belarusian Red Cross reported that more than 700 children from Ukraine were staying in the country.

• In July, Belarusian opposition media reported that Dmitriy Shevtsov, the head of the Belarusian Red Cross, went to the occupied territories and, on the air of Belarusian state television, confessed that the Red Cross of the country "takes and will continue to take" children from the occupied territories of Ukraine.

• The International Red Cross launched an investigation after the last trip of Dmitriy Shevtsov, the head of the Belarusian Red Cross, to the occupied territories of Ukraine, during which he confessed to abducting Ukrainian children and taking them to Belarus.

Previously:

• In March, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children's Rights in Russia. They are accused of military forcible transfer of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia.

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