Kidnapping Ukrainian children isn’t something new for Russia. They’ve done it before, and it’s a big part of their playbook.
In the 1930’s Russia made a concentrated effort to reduce Ukraine. Collectivized farms had Ukrainians starving to death in the many hundreds of thousands despite being the bread-basket of the Soviet Union. Russian security police arrested and sent hundreds of thousands more to the gulags of Siberia, taking their children, adopting them into Russian families to Russify them.
Yes, it’s genocide. Yes, that’s a war crime. And no, they don’t care. They never did.
The Russians have been attempting to kill off aspects of Ukrainian identity for a couple of centuries. Attacks on Ukrainian culture, language, religion and territory are common place over the decades.
To the Russians, there’s no such thing as a Ukrainian. They’re really just Russians. Problematic ones from time to time, but Slavic brothers and sisters nonetheless.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 