Several thousand Ukrainian children were transferred to Russia. Among them, just over 300 would have returned to Ukraine.
“A chilling reminder of the darkest times in our history.” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Friday 24th March condemned Russia’s kidnapping of children in Ukraine since the beginning of the conflict. She also announced that a conference would be organized by the European Union, Poland and Ukraine so that “all measures are taken” to find the deported children and bring them back to their country. However, the European official did not provide any information on the date or location of this event.
>> War in Ukraine: Deportation of Ukrainian children, Kremlin’s weapon for massive “Russification”
Here’s what we know about what the UN considers “a war crime.” A crime for which Vladimir Putin is prosecuted and the subject of an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.
Transfers contrary to international law
Since the outbreak of hostilities in February 2022, Russian authorities have been deporting Ukrainian children to Russia from areas under their control in Ukraine. And this is while international law prohibits the evacuation of children during armed conflicts, with very rare exceptions related to their health or safety, the UN Commission of Inquiry into the Conflict recalls in a report published in mid-March (PDF). “In the situations examined by the Commission, no transfer of a child appears to have complied with the requirements of international humanitarian law,” she said.
The UN reports several situations in which these transfers take place. If “children have lost their parents or temporarily lost contact with them during hostilities”. As minors “were separated at a checkpoint following the detention of a parent”. Or when the Russian army takes control of an area where children are “instituted”. Finally, children from the areas in the Kharkiv, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions that have come under Russian control “travelled temporarily with the consent of their parents” to “join holiday camps in Crimea or the Russian Federation,” the UN commission writes of the request.
The deportations took place at least from the Donetsk, Kherson and Kharkiv regions, according to the commission, which investigated the cases of 164 children from those regions. “Minors were taken to at least 57 regions of Russia,” specifies Ukrainian lawyer Ekaterina Rashevskaya, who was interviewed by Hromadkse media (in Russian) at the end of December.
Several thousand minors affected
How many children were deported in this way? hard to know According to the Russian news agency Interfax, in mid-November Moscow claimed that more than 4.7 million refugees, including around 712,000 children, had entered its territory “through checkpoints” since the beginning of the war. Also according to Interfax, in the spring Ukraine mentioned 240,000 minors deported to Russia without specifying whether they were accompanied by a parent. For its part, Ukraine’s National Information Bureau lists 16,200 children deported to Russia by the end of February, for which it claims to have confirmed data from the Prosecutor General’s team or the Interior Ministry.
For its part, the American NGO Conflict Observatory lists “6,000 children” who have been deported, according to a report (PDF, in English) published by the Yale Humanitarian Research Laboratory in February. And the NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW), in its own report published in March, mentions a transfer of “several thousand children”, including “more than 4,500” young Ukrainians, placed in orphanages before the war. The United Nations Commission of Inquiry admits that it has not been able to verify the figures provided by the Ukrainian authorities.
Doubtful reception conditions
Between Crimea and Russia, “43 detention centers” are responsible for housing Ukrainian children, according to the Yale Humanitarian Research Laboratory and the NGO Conflict Observatory. “Most are convalescent camps, where children are taken on so-called vacations, while others are facilities where foster or adopted children are placed,” the report states. There they undergo “re-education” aimed at making “their personal and political beliefs more pro-Russian,” which may include military training.
Communication between imprisoned children and parents is very rare. “Some parents have been ordered not to provide their children with cell phones,” reports the Yale and Conflict Observatory in detail.
The parents of the children taken on “vacation” also told the UN Commission: “In some transfer locations the children wore dirty clothes, they were shouted at and insulted. Meals were mediocre and some disabled children did not receive the care and medication they needed”.
Deportations aimed at the “Russification” of children
According to Ukrainian lawyer Ekaterina Rashevskaya, minors who join “centers for the promotion of family education” can then be added to the Federal Adoption Bank (in Russian), an online platform that provides the public with the data of these minors (age, characteristics, etc.) . But the law strictly forbids Russians from adopting foreign children. Vladimir Putin therefore signed a decree (in Russian) on May 30 that provides for a simplified naturalization procedure for Ukrainian orphans and children without parental care. A distorted procedure because “it does not appear that the Russian authorities have tried to contact the children’s parents or the Ukrainian authorities,” specifies the report of the UN Commission.
The Russian Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, then hinted on Telegram (in Russian) that the presence of these children in Russia would be permanent. “Now that they have become Russian citizens, the temporary guardianship can become permanent,” she assured in July. By December, at least “400 children” had been adopted by Russian families, according to the HRW report, the count of which is based on statements by Russian officials.
This hastily pursued naturalization policy is one of the tools Russia is using in its “coordinated absorption effort.” [ces mineurs] in Russian society,” Amnesty International denounced in a report (PDF) published in November.
Drop by drop return to Ukraine
Of the deported children, only 308 returned to Ukraine, the Interfax agency reported on March 21, citing Ukraine’s National Information Bureau. Parents of children sent on “holidays” to Crimea or Russia told the UN Commission of Inquiry that “Russian authorities required parents or guardians to travel personally to pick up their children when those areas fell under control of the Ukrainian government returned. This approach “entailed long and cumbersome travel and security risks. Not all parents were therefore able to do so, leading to protracted or even indefinite family separations.”