“Part of this propaganda campaign is the hushing up by the West of the fact that in European countries Ukrainian refugees are having their children taken away,” he said. Videos were then shown of some women claiming their children had been taken in Europe.

Nebenzia also insisted that contrary to Western claims there have been “no forced adoptions.” He said some Ukrainian children are in foster care and claimed there were “no obstacles” for them to maintain contact with their families in Ukraine.

The AP investigation found Russian officials deported Ukrainian children to Russia without their parents’ consent, lied to them that they weren’t wanted by their parents, used them for propaganda, and gave them Russian families and citizenship.

Since February 24, 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, Lvova-Belova said Russia has taken in more than 5 million Ukrainians, including 700,000 children — all with parents, relatives or legal guardians except for 2000 from orphanages in the eastern Donbas.

To date, she said, about 1300 children have been returned to their orphanages, 400 were sent to Russian orphanages and 358 were placed in foster homes.

Lvova-Belova said there has been no official communication with Ukrainian authorities about the children, but she said her office has met with representatives of UNICEF, Refugees International and the International Committee of the Red Cross and provided all available information about the children. She said Russia was coordinating with the Red Cross on reunification.

Sarah Sheffer, vice president for strategic outreach at Refugees International, denied this. She said Russia has not consulted with her organisation about the Ukrainian children.

AP