The UN and the International Court of Justice have accused Russia of forcibly removing Ukrainian children.
This action underscores a persistent pattern of compulsory relocation of individuals, amidst escalating global unease regarding Russia’s conduct in Ukraine.
The UN General Assembly has insisted that Russia return Ukrainian youngsters, separated from their families and transported to Russia post-2014, following Moscow’s annexation of Crimea.
In a recently approved resolution, which passed with 91 votes for, 12 against, and 57 abstentions, the UN implored Russia to “guarantee the prompt, secure, and unconditional return of all Ukrainian children who have been forcibly displaced or deported.”
The resolution declares that Moscow’s actions contravene international law, which forbids “the compulsory transfer or deportation of protected individuals from occupied areas.”
“It's inconceivable that anyone could consider children as war prizes,” expressed Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Maryana Betsa. She alleged that a minimum of 20,000 Ukrainian children had been deported to Russia. Russia dismissed the resolution, with its ambassador, Maria Zabolotskaya, labeling it “an utterly cynical falsehood.”
Read more: The US has called on European countries not to transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine.
The Ukrainian government asserts that hundreds of thousands of children have been forcibly relocated to Russia, with over 19,000 instances identified. Experts from Yale University estimate that 35,000 children were taken from Ukraine to over 100 locations within Russia and its occupied regions.
As of now, Ukraine has managed to retrieve 1,859 children “kidnapped by Russia,” as stated by Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenska on Monday during a summit in Paris.
A 2023 Yale University report pinpointed 43 detention centers where thousands of Ukrainian children were allegedly held following the Russian invasion in February 2022. The report revealed that parents consented to their children attending camps “under coercion.” Certain facilities placed children in foster families or facilitated their adoption in Russia, despite numerous children having parents in Ukraine.
Ukraine intends to submit the child abduction matter to international tribunals as a war crime. In August, the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office identified three suspects in the abduction of 15 children from a school in Russian-occupied territory.
Over two years prior, on March 15, 2023, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine concluded that Russian authorities had perpetrated a wide array of violations against international human rights and humanitarian law across various regions of Ukraine and the Russian Federation. The report indicated that these transgressions encompassed war crimes such as “deliberate killings, assaults on civilians, unlawful imprisonment, torture, rape, and the forced displacement and deportation of children.”
Two days following, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Children’s Rights Commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova. The ICC accused them of being directly liable for the extensive unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children to Russian-controlled territory, which the court categorized as a war crime under international law.
Beyond compulsory deportations from Russia, some children left without families and under state care in Ukraine faced other horrors. An investigation by the OCCRP and its Ukrainian affiliate, Slidstvie, unveiled the abuse and neglect of hundreds of orphans evacuated by a private charity to a Turkish coastal city, where they endured physical maltreatment and were deprived of adequate medical attention and education.
