According to the findings of United Nations investigators, Russia’s practice of forcibly deporting children from Ukraine to territories that it controls constitutes a war crime.
According to the United Nations Commission for Investigating the Situation in Ukraine, there is evidence that hundreds of children from Ukraine have been illegally transferred to Russia.
Further war crimes were perpetrated by Russia in Ukraine, according to the report of the Commission.
Assaults on medical facilities, rapes, acts of torture, and extrajudicial executions are all examples of these atrocities.
According to figures provided by the Ukrainian government, the total number of children who have been abducted and transported to Russia is 16,221.
According to the findings of the report, Russia has implemented programs such as the provision of Citizenship of the Russian Federation and the adoption of children by Russian families in order to “Establish a structure within which it is possible that some of the children will end up living permanently” in Russia.
The UN investigators reported that even though it was expected that the transfers would only be temporary, the majority of them were extended and that both the parents and the children faced a variety of challenges when trying to establish contact with one another.
In certain instances, children or parents who had previously lived in Russia-controlled areas shared their experiences with the Commission., children who had been transported were compelled to wear soiled clothes, were shouted at, and were called names. They also stated that some of the disabled youngsters did not receive the necessary medical attention or medication.
According to the research, the responsibility of getting in touch with their parents fell mostly on the transferred youngsters because the adults experienced significant problems in the areas of logistics, finances, and security in their efforts to locate or retrieve their children.
It also reports witnesses as indicating that some of the younger children who were relocated may not have been able to make communication with their families, and as a result, they may lose contact with the families permanently.
According to the findings of the research, the forcible removals of Ukrainian children from the country constitute a violation of international humanitarian law as well as a crime against humanity.
According to the United Nations, Russia may be involved in even more heinous crimes against humanity than the rapes, deaths, and “widespread” torture already documented, including the wave of strikes on the energy infrastructure of Ukraine that began in October of last year.
In addition to this, the commission is investigating whether or not the shelling and encirclement of the city of Mariupol during the month of May of 2014 could be considered a serious offense against humankind.
The investigators stated that they also possessed the necessary documentation of a limited number of infractions that were committed by the military forces of Ukraine.
