EDITORIAL - Another crime Russia has to account for

During a recent rally in Moscow, Russia President Vladimir Putin had some special “guests”; children allegedly seized from Ukraine, there to praise him and his troops for “liberating” them.

“Thank you Uncle Yuri for saving me and my sister and hundreds and thousands of children in Mariupol,” one girl says after she was ushered onstage. She is then coached to hug a Russian soldier also onstage. Other children waiting for their turn also hug “Yuri”.

CNN, the source of this report, identified the girl as 13-year-old Anna Naumenko, also known as Anya to her family and friends.

According to the same report, her family friend Kateryna Postuvit said after Anna’s mother was killed by Russian shelling in Mariupol, Anna was sent to live with a foster family still in Mariupol. Postuvit said it was the surprise of her life when she suddenly saw Anna speaking during the rally in Moscow, praising the very army that killed her mother.

And the propaganda worked; the teenager has received threats to no end from fellow Ukrainians because of her “betrayal”.

Of course there is no way we can independently verify some facts, but if indeed that was Anna then she was somehow persuaded, convinced, or perhaps even threatened to say and do what she did.

And now we can add what can amount to child abuse to the list of Russia’s crimes.

It is said that all is fair in love and war, but to use innocent children, children who may not be old enough to tell right from wrong, children who are easy to manipulate or threaten, that is just dastardly.

We cannot totally blame Anna for doing what she did, we don’t know exactly how she became an unwitting pawn in this war. The threats she is getting are quite understandable but also undeserved;

She may not be the only unwitting pawn. If Russia is willing to use one child they might be willing to use others. Reports are rampant that many Ukrainian children were kidnapped by Russian forces over the course of the conflict.

If Russia is willing to stoop so low as to brainwash children then use them to justify their war, what else are they willing to do?