To call Putin ‘a humanitarian’ is an abuse of the English language
A humanitarian is a person dedicated to improving human welfare, reducing suffering and protecting human dignity, especially during crises like wars, famines or natural disasters.
So for Steve Witkoff, the United States special envoy for peace missions, to describe the Russian President, the despot, Vladimir Putin, as such, is nothing short of an abuse of the English language and an absolute disgrace.
In a meeting with Putin in St Petersburg last Wednesday Witkoff told him “You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian (another misnomer.) You are a humanitarian also sir, and I salute you for that.”
This provoked a response from Ukraine’s foreign minister who said that “This night, the residents of Kyiv heard what Russian humanitarianism sounds like!”
Notwithstanding the human cost in terms of military personnel and civilian losses since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it is the abduction of Ukranian children and their enforced resettlement with Russian families that I want to concentrate on today and remind readers of.
Two years ago, I devoted my column to this despicable policy. Under the headline “ The children of Ukraine stolen by Putin must not be forgotten” I wrote that “Since the start of the war international human rights organisations have tracked more than 19,000 Ukranian children who have been abducted and taken to Russia or Belarus where there have been countless reports of abuse, intimidation, forced adoption and ‘re-education’- which is part of Russia’s plan to indoctrinate children and erase their Ukranian identity.”
The Yale Humanitarian Research Lab in the United States reported that Russia targeted vulnerable groups of children for deportation, including orphans, children with disabilities, children from low-income families and children with parents in the military.
It said that there were documented cases in which children were physically abused, denied communication with their families in Ukraine and given inadequate access to food and care after being taken to Russia.
Tellingly it reported that “The kidnapping and indoctrination, including military training of children from Ukraine was ordered by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and executed by Russia’s federal, regional and occupation officials.”
The Ukranian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy issued a statement earlier this year stating that “When a country becomes such an evil force - a force that does not stop, even at destroying the lives of children - this cannot be treated as just a regional problem, something happening somewhere far away.
"If a country commits such crimes against children, it means it is capable of any crime. And that is exactly why this challenge requires a global response.”
This reprehensible policy prompted the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants in March 2023 for Putin and his Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, over their direct involvement in the unlawful deportations.
Even some members of Witkoff’s own Republican Party are astonished at his remarks with US Senator, Thom Tillis, saying “What an embarrassing and outrageous thing to say. You should go back to Ukraine and ask the families of the children Putin has kidnapped and murdered whether they agree your friend is a ‘humanitarian.”
More than 19,000 children, torn from their country and families, forcibly trafficked to Russia for indoctrination, in other words- Russification.
Putin a humanitarian? What a perverse joke. Steve Witkoff should hang his head in shame!