The UN international commission has recognized the deportation, illegal transfer and enforced disappearance of Ukrainian children by Russian authorities as crimes against humanity.
This is stated in a new report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on violations in Ukraine.
In addition to crimes against humanity, the delay in repatriating children and their unlawful removal from occupied territories have been officially recognized as war crimes.
The Russian authorities deliberately do not disclose information about the whereabouts of the young Ukrainians. They are placed with foster families and orphanages in the Russian Federation, even if they have living relatives or legal guardians in Ukraine.
One of the most shocking examples documented in the report was the deportation of the residents of the Kherson infant home in September 2022.
Thus, the report cites the story of an 11-month-old girl and a 2-year-old boy, who were taken from Kherson to the Moscow region. The permission for this was issued by the facility director appointed by the occupiers.
The Commission obtained evidence that the 11-month-old girl from Kherson was illegally adopted by 72-year-old Sergey Mironov — leader of a faction in the State Duma of the Russian Federation and a close ally of Putin. The girl’s name and place of birth were changed in the official Russian registers. Despite the fact that she has a biological mother and guardian in Ukraine, the child has still not been returned. There is currently no information about the fate of the boy who was taken with her.
The report also mentions the tragedy of a teenager from Kherson region, who was deported to Krasnodar Krai in 2022. After reaching adulthood in the Russian Federation the young man tried to find a way home and regularly called his mother, but in January 2024, unable to withstand the pressure and isolation, he took his own life.
Instead of returning the children home, Russia focuses on their integration into Russian society through changes of citizenship and by posting profiles on adoption portals.
The Commission emphasizes that such actions have nothing to do with the “best interests of the child” and constitute a gross violation of international humanitarian law. Despite the efforts of Ukraine and international intermediaries, the return process is deliberately delayed by Moscow for years.
According to official Ukrainian data, more than 20,000 Ukrainian children ended up in Russia and on the occupied territories during the full-scale war. At the same time, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets suggested that Russia had illegally taken about 150,000 children from Ukraine, while the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Children’s Rights Darya Herasymchuk named a figure of “several hundred thousand children, i.e. about 200-300 thousand”.