On July 31 and August 2, 2023, Georgian– and Russian-language Facebook accounts shared a July 23 story by the Belarusian state-controlled media Belarus 1 about the alleged illegal trade of Ukrainian children and their organs. An excerpt of the story is available on the Facebook page of Belarus 1, while the full version was published on АТН: Новости Беларуси и мира.
At the beginning of the story, the anchor says that not only individual children but entire orphanages are going missing. The story alleges that a children’s shelter near Mariupol was sold to Spain together with 85 children; 500 children were taken to Poland and Israel by a Western religious sect; 170 teenagers disappeared without a trace in the Netherlands, and 30 to 40 in Spain. In the video, several women talk about the loss of their children. The story also shows an interview in which Vera Vayman, posing as a former Ukrainian observer of the OSCE, who claims that eight clinics were discovered and closed in the country, where children were killed, their organs removed, and sold. According to her, most of these clinics were American, and a unit of the Ukrainian army was also involved in this case, which killed children and took a share from the business.
Part of the information from Belarus 1’s story was disseminated by various media outlets (1, 2, 3, 4) and Facebook accounts (1, 2, 3) at different times.
There story contains a number of false and manipulative claims, while some of the information is without evidence. Namely”
- 170 Ukrainian children did not go missing in the Netherlands. in reality, the case concerned the number of Ukrainian minors who came to the country without their parents and the problems related to their registration.
- Only one Russian-linked Polish human rights activist, Joanna Pakzewicz, has spoken about the sale of the children’s shelter near Mariupol to Spain, who says she no longer has access to the documents proving it.
- Vera Vayman, who is presented as a former OSCE observer, is actually Russian Vera Nikulina; she has never worked in the OSCE and has ties to Putin’s party.
-
170 Ukrainian children did not go missing in the Netherlands
The story by Belarus 1 claims that 170 children have gone missing in the Netherlands. On May 25, 2022, an article was published in the Dutch media, according to which at least 170 Ukrainian minors arrived in the country without their parents. The article emphasizes that a large number of children have not been registered, and a legal guardian has not been appointed for them. Officials said the number could be higher, increasing the risks to children, and urged everyone to keep an eye on the child registration process. The Ukrainian fact-checking portal StopFake verified this claim and found that this very article became the source for Russian propaganda, the content of which was spread in a distorted and manipulative manner.
-
The claim about the alleged sale of an orphanage to Spain is without evidence
The story is based on the Polish activist Ioana Pakhvitzewicz, who told the Russian propaganda media – “Izvestia” that she got hold of a document that claims that Ukraine sold 85 orphaned children from an orphanage near Mariupol to Spain. Despite the statement, she has not published any evidence. Leadstories Ukraine and Veridica, a Romanian fact-checking platform, labeled the claim as false and unverified due to a lack of evidence, and their research found that Pakhvitzewicz has a long history of cooperation with Sputnik and other Russian state-controlled media outlets.
-
Vera Vayman, who is presented as a former OSCE observer, is actually Russian Vera Nikulina
At 2:53 in the story, we see an interview, which according to the credits, shows Vera Vayman – a former OSCE observer for 2019-2022. Vayman says that in Ukraine, they closed eight clinics, where they found the bodies of children with their organs removed. According to her, it was part of the organ trade market, and Ukrainian army units were also involved in this business, killing children and making a lot of money from the business. Through the identification program, it was determined that the said respondent is not Vera Vayman, but Russian Vera Nikulina, a resident of the city of Vladivostok, who is linked with Putin’s United Russia party. Her photos and videos can be easily found on the Internet, from which it is established that in 2014 she was the chairman of the Youth Chamber of the Duma of the city of Vladivostok. The Center for Combating Disinformation of Ukraine wrote on this topic as well.
The disseminated interview was verified by the Polish service of the French press agency (Agence France-Presse (AFP)). They also contacted the OSCE regarding the mentioned issue. The organization stated that the woman shown in the interview has never been their observer. According to the AFP article, Nikulina has only an indirect connection with the OSCE when in 2014, she participated in the Young Leaders Forum organized by the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.
-
Ukrainian parents from the story
In addition, in the story, several Ukrainian women talk about their children being taken in Europe and not being returned. One of them, Oksana Borotevich, tells about the case in greater detail in another interview. According to her, her child was taken from her in Germany because the local doctors misdiagnosed her with Munchausen syndrome. Carriers of this disease are constantly convinced that they or a person around them (in this case, their child) have serious health problems. According to Borotevich, she kept her son in the hospital for eight months due to constant abdominal pain, but the doctors could not find anything, which is why she was accused of Munchausen’s syndrome and considered a danger to the child.
In the same story, Yulia Ponasenko also talks about the issue and states that after the start of the war, she moved from Dnipro to Spain, where her two children were taken away, and she has not seen them ever since. According to her, this process happened without any reason, and neither the social services nor the Embassy of Ukraine helped her to return the children. According to Ponasenko, the Spanish prosecutor’s office was going to initiate a criminal case against her, which is why she was forced to leave the country. However, it should be noted that she did not flee to Ukraine but to Belarus. Belarusian media zerkalo.io found that Ponasenko was living in Minsk as early as 2019, which is confirmed by the statement published by the search and rescue group “Angel“, in which we read that Ponasenko is a citizen of Ukraine; although she lived in Belarus. On February 12, 2019, she stopped contact with her family and, since then, was wanted by the Dnipro police. On March 9, 2019, the same portal reported that Ponasenko’s whereabouts had been determined, although the details of the search were not made public.
In addition, it should be noted that Ponasenko was not recognized on the Telegram channel of Ukrainian refugees in Spain, which raises doubts about the authenticity of her story.
The instances of Ukrainian children being taken away from their families are indeed recorded in the EU. In June 2023, the Office of the Children’s Rights Ombudsman of Ukraine also made a statement regarding the mentioned topic. Iryna Suslova said in an interview with Radio Liberty that they know about 240 cases when the social service took a child from the families of Ukrainian IDPs due to various violations. According to Suslova, this is primarily due to the fact that different child protection rules apply in European countries, and not all Ukrainians have detailed information, which the Office of the Ombudsman of Ukraine should do more work to correct.
-
Are children going missing in the EU or Russia?
The claims voiced in the story of Belarus 1 are not evidenced by facts. Most of the narratives about the trafficking of Ukrainian children, their organs, and their disappearance are spread by the Russian side; however, it should be noted that it is the Russian government that is accused of the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children. On March 17 of this year, the Hague International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the children’s ombudsman of the Russian Federation.
According to the Ukrainian government, between 15,000 and 20,000 Ukrainian children were forcibly relocated to Russia (the number may be higher), of which approximately 10,000 have been located, although only about 400 of them have been able to return to their homeland.
“Myth Detector” has debunked disinformation about the alleged illegal trade of child organs in Ukraine in the past as well. See more:
- Recurring Disinformation by Pro-Kremlin Media about Organ Trading in Ukraine
- Repeated Lie by Pro-Kremlin Actors about Trading Organs of Ukrainian Soldiers
- Disinformation of Asaval-Dasavali and TV Zvezda on an illegal Western business of trading organs in Ukraine
About the Sources
The Facebook account “Tsikara Kolkhi” often publishes anti-liberal and anti-opposition posts, including disinformation, which “Myth Detector” has repeatedly debunked (1, 2, 3.)
Russian-language Facebook accounts Лана Маркович and Людмила Иванова have disseminated disinformation on anti-liberal and anti-Ukrainian content in the past as well.
Archive links:
The article has been written in the framework of Facebook’s fact-checking program. You can read more about the restrictions that Facebook may impose based on this article via this link. You can find information about appealing or editing our assessment via this link.
Read detailed instructions for editing the article.
Read detailed appeal instructions.
