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Sept. 18 (UPI) -- A top official in Moscow said that authorities are working to place 125Ukrainian children described as "orphans" taken from the occupied Donetsk province of Ukraine with Russian families. "All the children who were brought in have already received Russian citizenship and are being settled under Russian law," Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights, told reporters.
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Lvova-Belova said that Russian psychologists went to Donetsk and "conducted psychological testing with the children" before showing them videos of prospective adoptive parents.
"Each child had the opportunity to choose from three or four families, then they communicated via video link and already decided which family they were going to, and the psychologist took this compatibility into account," Lvova-Belova said.
The forcible transfer of children of one group of people to another is a violation of Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
The U.S. Treasury Department and the U.S. State Department on Thursday announced a slew of new sanctions against 22 officials in Russia including Lvova-Belova.
Lvova-Belova, who reports directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin, "has led Russia's efforts to deport thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia," the Treasury Department said in a statement.
"Lvova-Belova's efforts specifically include the forced adoption of Ukrainian children into Russian families, the so-called 'patriotic education' of Ukrainian children, legislative changes to expedite the provision of Russian Federation citizenship to Ukrainian children, and the deliberate removal of Ukrainian children by Russia's forces," the Treasury Department said.
She has also been sanctioned by Australia, Britain, Canada, the European Union and Switzerland.
Lvova-Belova blasted the sanctions against her in comments made to Russian state media agency TASS.
"Today, I was blacklisted by the U.S. The only thing that concerns me is that they won't be able to pronounce my last name correctly," she said.
"But seriously, it's sad that a country that views itself as a bastion of democracy believes that the children of Donbas don't deserve these rights. This is why we work to defend these positions, helping children to preserve their right to live under a peaceful sky and be happy."
Putin on Friday called the sanctions against the so-called children's rights ombudsman "outrageous," as well as claims that Russia is abducting children from Ukraine in comments to TASS.
"It is only natural that she evacuated children from the zone of combat operations or dangerous areas in Donbas. What is wrong about it? We should thank her for than and make a low bow to her," Putin said. "Is it right to sanction for it? It is outrageous."
Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office said in a statement to Telegram on Sunday that 390 children have been killed by Russian forces since February 24.
An 11-year-old girl died from Russian shelling of a residential neighborhood in the city of Chuguiv in the Kharkiv province of Ukraine on Saturday, officials said. A 2-year-old boy was injured in shelling in Donetsk on Saturday.
