A meeting of the coordination council of the Investigative Committee chaired by Alexander Bastrykin took place today to discuss help to children from southeastern Ukraine.

The meeting was attended by: Children’s Rights Commissioner for the President of the Russian Federation Pavel Astakhov, State Secretary – Deputy Minister of the Russian Federation for Civil Defense, Emergency Situations and Disaster Relief Vladimir Artamonov, Director of Children’s Medical Aid Department and Obstetrics Service of the RF Ministry of Healthcare Yelena Baibarina, artistic director of Modern theater Svetlana Vragova, Director of the Department for sanitary and epidemiological wellbeing, organization of emergency aid and expert activities of the RF Ministry of Healthcare Oksana Guzeva, executive director of the International NGO Fair Help Yelizaveta Glinka, as well as officials of the central office and representatives of the Moscow Directorate of the Investigative Committee.

In his speech, the Chairman pointed out that the Investigative Committee has been patronizing the underage patients that come from southeastern Ukraine since they started coming to Russia, and reminded that in accordance with the decision of the council invitations to join it have been sent to a number of ministries and agencies. “All of them are ready to take part in the activities of the council in this or that form. Therefore, I would like to thank the present for taking care of this problem,” Mr. Bastykin said. Considering urgency of the problems related to helping children from southeastern Ukraine discussed at the meeting, the Chairman added: “I am convinced that Russia can’t and should not stay aside when children’s health, lives and safety are under threat.”

The members of the council noted that most of the problems discussed during the previous meeting have been taken care of. Namely, there is now an algorithm for coordinating the procedure of the evacuation of children from southeastern Ukraine for treatment in Russia with healthcare authorities, Emergency Ministry, Children’s Ombudsman, NGOs involved in volunteer activities and other agencies.

The council discussed a number of issues related to helping sick and wounded children who come from southeastern Ukraine. This concerns the problem of transportation of children for treatment in Russia across mine-strewn areas in southeastern Ukraine brought up by executive director of the International NGO Fair Aid Yelizaveta Glinka. The number of children wounded on mine fields has grown so it has been decided to organize preventive efforts and explain children the danger of crossing mine fields. Dr. Glinka also expressed gratitude to the officials of the Investigative Committee, who 24/s help tackling concrete tasks related to accommodation of arriving children and their families, making necessary documents and providing them with everything necessary.

The council also discussed the problem of transporting humanitarian aid to hospitals in southeastern Ukraine, provision of education to children who undergo long-term treatment in Moscow and finding jobs for their parents while they stay in Russia.

The members of the council agreed with Mr. Bastrykin, who pointed out the necessity of “efficient organization of aid in southeastern Ukraine, development and effective use of current workforce”.

The members of the council made a number of concrete offers aimed at protection of rights, lives and health of children from southeastern Ukraine, made a decision to develop a systematic approach to handle the said problems and the mechanism of cooperation of all the agencies to accomplish new tasks.

Head of Media Relations                                                                                                                           V.I. Markin