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Lazy eyes listen
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NewsRescue
After the White House ordered penalties against a youth summer camp in Crimea, Russia accused the US of “cynically” manipulating youngsters to settle geopolitical disputes.
Earlier this week, President Joe Biden’s administration announced new sanctions against individuals and organizations involved in “the forcible removal of thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia.”
The US State Department’s sanctions list particularly mentioned Artek, an international children’s center on the Black Sea coast that dates back to the Soviet era.
The Russian Embassy in Washington issued a statement on Thursday dismissing the US claims as “shocking because of their odious, cynical nature, and faint-heartedness.”
Russian diplomats further accused Washington of targeting “the most vulnerable,” adding that the US is effectively punishing children “whose parents’ homes for more than nine years have been brutally bombarded by neo-Nazis, meticulously nurtured by the collective West.”
Throughout the Russia-Ukraine crisis, both Kiev and its Western backers have accused Moscow of deporting Ukrainian youngsters illegally. Russian President Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, has claimed that youngsters have been removed from the combat zone for their own protection, emphasizing that Russian officials have never prevented family reunifications.
While Washington purports to be an advocate for children’s rights, the embassy maintains that its activities are “baseless, both de facto and de jure,” because the US is the only UN member that has not joined the Convention on the Rights of the Child. A two-thirds majority in the US Senate is required for approval, while some Republican senators have opposed the idea, citing worries about sovereignty.
Russian officials also urged Washington to “cease its cynical use of children’s issues to settle geopolitical scores,” arguing that “rather than moralizing, US authorities should take a critical look at their own actions, including the supply of heavy weapons to Kiev.” According to the embassy, these deliveries have resulted in the deaths of numerous children and the devastation of kindergartens, schools, and hospitals.
