ロシア人牧師夫婦、ウクライナから里子５人引き取り「１８人家族」に

【キーウ（ウクライナ）ＡＦＰ＝時事】ロシアの首都モスクワから３０００キロ以上東に離れたシベリア連邦管区ノボシビルスクに住む牧師のロマン・ビノグラドフさん（４１）と妻のエカテリーナさんは、自国が占領しているウクライナ東部出身の子ども５人を里子として受け入れている。（写真はロシア・ノボシビルスク郊外の通りを歩くロマン・ビノグラドフさん夫婦と子どもたち）
　ビノグラドフさんたちは里親としての経験が豊富で、現在は実子４人を含む子ども計１６人を育てている。「助けを心底必要としている」子どもたちを救いたいのだと話した。
　ウクライナ政府や人権団体は、昨年のウクライナ侵攻開始以降、数万人の子どもがロシアやロシア支配地域に強制移住させられているとして非難。ウォロディミル・ゼレンスキー大統領は、「ロシアによるウクライナ人の子どもの拉致、強制養子縁組、再教育」は「戦争犯罪であり人道に対する罪」だと糾弾した。
　１７日には国際刑事裁判所（ＩＣＣ）が、ウクライナの子どもの違法連行をめぐる戦争犯罪の疑いで、ロシアのウラジーミル・プーチン大統領に逮捕状を出した。
　ロシア側は、ウクライナから来た「難民」の子どもを受け入れているだけだと主張している。
　ビノグラドフさんはＡＦＰに対し「私は誰もさらってなどいない。子どもたちもさらわれたとは思っていない」と述べた。
　ビノグラドフさんによると、里子を１人増やしたいと申請したところ、地元当局から電話があり、「ウクライナ人の子どもたちを受け入れてもらえるだろうか」と聞かれたという。
　「『受け入れます』と答えた」とビノグラドフさん。「何の違いがあるだろうか。子どもはどこであっても子どもだ。どこの国かは関係ない」
　ビノグラドフさん夫婦は、父親が異なる３～１２歳のウクライナ人きょうだい５人を養育している。女の子が４人、男の子が１人で、６か月前にモスクワからやって来た。それ以前にも、２人はすでに７人の里子を育てていた。
　取材したＡＦＰ記者は、子どもたちが楽しそうにそりで遊んだり、家の周りの雪かきをしたり、食事の支度をしたりする様子を見た。
　ビノグラドフさんは、このウクライナの子どもたちは親ロ派勢力が２０１４年から支配するルハンスクの児童養護施設から来たと言い、親ロ派当局が発行した養子縁組に関する書類を見せた。
　実の母親は親権を剥奪されており、子どもたちは母親のことを覚えていないという。
　エカテリーナさんは「もちろん、子どもたちから質問される時がいずれ来る。その時には、私たちは（母親）を捜すつもりだ。面会できるよう取り計らうと思う」と話した。
　ビノグラドフさんは、子どもたちは家族の一員として暮らす術を学んでいる段階で、今でも「ここが自分の家だ」と安心させる必要があると話す。
　最年少の子どもが幼稚園に行き始めた際には迎えに来るかどうか心配し、「いつ来るの、本当に来てくれるの」と聞かれたという。
　国際法では、健康上または安全上のやむを得ない理由での一時的な措置を除き、紛争の当事者が子どもを外国に避難させることは認められていない。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】

〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/03/22-17:19）

At their home in the middle of Siberia, Russian pastor Roman Vinogradov and his wife Yekaterina are the new foster parents of five children from Moscow-occupied eastern Ukraine.
The Vinogradovs are experienced fosterers now raising 16 children, including four of their own, and say they just want to help those who are very much in need.
But Ukraine and human rights groups have condemned the forced transfer of thousands of children into Russia or Moscow-controlled territory since the invasion last year.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week referred to kidnapping, forced adoption and re-education of Ukrainian children committed by Russia, calling this a war crime and a crime against humanity.
Russia says it is simply taking in refugee children from Ukraine.
I didn't steal anyone. And they (the children) don't think they were stolen, Vinogradov, a 41-year-old Protestant minister, told AFP.
The Vinogradovs, who live in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, more than 3,000 kilometres (1,800 miles) east of Moscow, said local authorities asked them to take in Ukrainian children after they requested another child.
They phoned from children's services, saying: 'Will you take children from Ukraine? said Yekaterina Vinogradova, 38.
We said: 'Yes, we'll take them'.
What difference does it make? Children are children everywhere. It doesn't matter what nation.
- Four girls and a boy -
The couple are now fostering five Ukrainian half-siblings -- four girls and a boy aged three to 12, who arrived from Moscow six months ago.
They already had seven foster children.
AFP saw the children cheerfully sledging together, clearing snow around the couple's large house and helping prepare a meal.
The Vinogradovs say the Ukrainian children came from children's homes in the city of Lugansk, which has been controlled by Russian-backed separatists since 2014. They showed foster papers issued by officials from Lugansk's pro-Moscow administration.
The children do not remember their mother, who was stripped of her parental rights, Vinogradov said.
The time will come of course when they ask questions. We'll have a look (for her). Maybe we'll organise a meeting, said his wife.
Vinogradov said the children were learning to live in a family and still needed reassurance that this is their home.
When the youngest went to nursery school they were worried about whether we would collect them, Vinogradov said. They asked: 'When will you come? Will you really come or not?'
According to international law, no party to a conflict should evacuate children to a foreign country except temporarily for a compelling health or safety reason.
- 'Russians hide our children' -
In a report released on Monday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) called for a concerted international effort to return forcibly deported children and urged Russia to publish information on their whereabouts.
Returning children who were illegally taken by Russian forces should be an international priority, said Bill Van Esveld, HRW associate director for children's rights.
Ukraine's presidential commissioner for children's rights, Daria Gerasymchuk, said Russia was refusing to recognise that these children were deportees.
Russians hide our children, she told journalists last week.
Kyiv has so far brought back 308 children, Gerasymchuk said, with a big team of government officials working to this end.
Ukraine has many pieces of evidence coming from different cities and has identified 43 children's camps in Russia. But children are being moved around all the time, she said.
We have evidence of how much effort was taken by Russia to make it impossible to reunify families.
Ukraine had 105,000 children in institutional homes before war broke out, the second highest number in Europe behind Russia, HRW said.
Gerasymchuk told AFP that of the 16,000 children deported to Russia about which Ukraine has full information, only 138 come from such institutions.
- 'Saving the children' -
It would be wrong to say that only orphaned children are being taken to Russia, she said.
Russians use at least five different scenarios to deport children, she said. These included separating children from parents during border filtration, taking them directly from family homes and sending them to Russian resorts for recuperation.
Ukraine has tried to hide these children from the view of the Russians, Gerasymchuk said.
We would somehow put children from institutions into (foster) families so Russians couldn't identify and deport them but we were not always successful.
The head of a children's rehabilitation centre outside the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, Volodymyr Sagaidak, told AFP in January that during Russian occupation, officials questioned him on the children's whereabouts and seized their files.
None of the Russians said they wanted to take the children. But I'd say there was a hidden form of deportation: 'Let's take you on an excursion', 'Let's take you to Crimea for recreation', the 61-year-old said.
Oksana Koval, a 49-year-old teacher at the centre, said after the city was occupied they quickly handed over most of the children, aged three to 17, to relatives. Staff took others home. Koval herself took three girls.
The Russians didn't know we had the children. We told them the children had been taken home by their parents, she said.
We cared only about one thing -- saving the children.