Ukrainians outraged as US dad shoots adopted Ukrainian boy

Ukrainians outraged as US dad shoots adopted Ukrainian boy

Tags: Society, Opinion & Analysis, World, Ukraine, child adoption

Feb 22, 2013 18:39 Moscow Time

Another child has been killed by his American adopted parents. Russian Embassy in the US received a new signal earlier but it says that the 13-year-old, who was shot in the head by his adoptive father in West Virginia, is not registered with the Russia's consulate. Following an inquiry Russian diplomats determined that the victim was actually adopted from the Ukrainian city of Donetsk. Now the Ukrainian Embassy and the US Department of State have been informed about this incident right away.

For more on this incident we are now joined with the Voice of Russia correspondent in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev, and this is Maxim Eristavi.

Maxim, thank you very much for joining me and welcome to the program. So, please, give us the latest details on this case and whether there was any reaction whatsoever from the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington?

Hi guys! As you said we’ve become aware of this tragedy from the Russian diplomats doing their investigation into the matter of the American adopted kids from Russia. They’ve found out about a murdered 13-year-old teen from Ukraine. Andrew Arthur Butler was his name and originally he is from Donetsk. An old American couple from Hedzhsvill West Virginia adopted him and his adoptive father was 73 years at the moment of the incident.

So, what we know now? In June 2011 this adoptive American father shot and killed the boy. It happened when he was trying to teach the kid how to use a gun. And later the father admitted his partial guilt but insisted that this was an unintentional murder. Anyway, he has been in jail since then.

I see. Did we hear anything from the Ukrainian Embassy? Are they looking into this issue? Have they contacted the police? Do we know anything about that?

For now this news is just developing on newswires and there is no official reaction from the Ukrainian officials, we don’t have this just yet. And of course you know this tragedy is horrifying, but however, unlike in Russia, there is no adoption scandal in Ukraine. The rate of foreign adoption here is three times smaller than in Russia and only 10 000 adopted Ukrainian kids live in the US.

Surely there is no way that local officials can track the fate of already adopted kids by foreigners and the representatives of presidential administration officially admitted this I guess a couple of days ago. But among the Ukrainians there is a strong perception that adopted kids have more chances for a better life out there in foreign countries because truly speaking the state of local orphanage system is just horrible and kids are in a constant state of malnutrition, I’m not even speaking about dissent closed education or of psychological comfort.

Absolutely! Maxim, you are absolutely right, the story is just developing, it is early morning right now in Washington and we are well into our afternoon here in Europe. But I’m sure there is a reaction with the public, some kind of an outrage because people must have heard about this already in Kiev. Have you heard anything? Are people saying anything about this already?

You know, it is just the same that I told you right now. So, I’m looking into the comments under the news and what people are saying in the social media. Of course there is an outrage. And every death of every child is just horrible, but we are all aware that it is not like in the US they are targeting Ukrainian or Russian adopted kids only. You know, one child dies every three hours from gun violence in the US. It is just horrible for the Americans and for the Ukrainians here also.