Child abductions in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine

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Child abductions in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
Part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine
LocationRussian-occupied territories of Ukraine
DateFebruary 24, 2022 (2022-02-24) – present
TargetUkrainian children
Attack type
Deathsnearly 800[1]
Victims13,000[1] – 307,000[2]
LitigationInternational Criminal Court arrest warrants for Putin and Lvova-Belova

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russia transferred thousands of Ukrainian children to areas it controls, granted them Russian citizenship and forced adoption and created obstacles for their reunions with their parents or homeland.[3]

The United Nations believes these are deportations which constitute war crimes.[3][4] The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for president Vladimir Putin and children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for alleged responsibility in unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children.[5] According to international law, including the 1948 Genocide Convention,[a] these acts constitute genocide if done with intent to destroy.[6]

Children were taken from arrested parents, state institutions and summer camps.[7] Others were found separated from their parents by the war,[8] sometimes orphaned.[7] Some were lied to about their parents abandoning them,[9] others used for propaganda.[9][8] Some were maltreated.[3] They receive a Russian patriotic education.[9] Their estimated numbers range from 13,000[1] to 307,000.[2] The Ukrainian Office of the Prosecutor General said in December 2022 that nearly 800 had died or disappeared.[1]

Parental separation

Some children have been abducted after becoming separated from their parents while fleeing active war zones,[10][8] and some have been abducted after their parents were detained in Russian-run filtration camps.[10]

Places of origin

Children have been abducted from Ukrainian state-run institutions like orphanages, group homes,[8] and boarding[8] schools;[11][8] many of the forcibly transferred children were taken from orphanages and group homes. Most children in the care of Ukrainian state institutions are not orphans; instead, most are temporarily or permanently placed under the care of the state by parents facing personal hardships like poverty, illness, or addiction (the Ukrainian state facilitates the voluntary temporary or permanent placement of children under the care of state institutions by parents). The United Nations estimated that some 90,000 children resided in state-run homes in Ukraine prior to the 2022 invasion. Regardless of whether the children forcibly transferred by Russian authorities have parents or are indeed wards of the state, such forced transfers during wartime may still constitute a war crime.[8] The vast majority were taken from southern and eastern Ukraine (Kherson, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk and Mykolaiv regions).[10]

Summer camps

Parents in Russian-occupied areas have been encouraged by Russian occupation authorities to send their children to Russian state-sponsored children's summer camps that had been set up in 43 locations across Russia and Crimea for a respite from the war. Some parents were pressured to allow their children to go to the camps. At least 6,000 Ukrainian children have attended such camps; analysis of information from public accounts and satellite imagery has indicated the number of children housed in such camps to be far higher. Some have been subsequently detained in the camps indefinitely, while others were returned weeks or months later than promised.[12]

Some parents were told that their children would be returned only if parents pick them up in person; travel between Ukraine and Russia is difficult and expensive, some camps are located far from Ukraine - including as far as the Russian Far East Magadan Oblast which abuts the Pacific coast, many children are from low-income families that cannot afford the journey (some had to sell their belongings to afford the journey and travel through 4 countries to collect their children from the camps), even relatives granted power of attorney by parents are not allowed to collect the children, and all men (including parents) of ages between 18 and 60 are forbidden from leaving Ukraine as they are eligible for conscription so that in most cases only the mothers are able to retrieve the children. In some instances, camp officials said that the return of children was depended upon Russia recapturing Ukrainian territory, while one child was told that he would not be returned home due to his "pro-Ukrainian views".[12]

Children in such camps have been subjected to Russification, Russian state propaganda, and military education (including firearm training). According to the United States State Department spokesman, in many cases, children in the camps have been cut off from all contact with their families.[12] They are placed in homes and reeducated.[13]

Living conditions

Some of the children were verbally or sexually abused in generally poor living conditions of inadequate care.[3][10]

According to The New York Times, "Russian officials have made clear that their goal is to replace any childhood attachment to home with a love for Russia".[8]

Propaganda

The domestic narrative of the Russian state is that abandoned children are rescued from the ravages of war by the magnanimous Russian state.[10][8] The forced transfer of Ukrainian children forms part of a broader propaganda strategy by Vladimir Putin attempting to portray Ukraine as part of the Russian nation and justify the invasion. The Russian state has carefully crafted the portrayal of the forced transfers of children to the Russian public. Russian state television has broadcast footage of Russian officials handing out teddy bears to newly arrived abducted children, and Russian officials in Donetsk have invited reporters to events where gifts were handed out to abducted children.[8]

Enforcement

Many parents wish to reunite with their children (some do not, either due to financial reasons or previous estrangement). Russian authorities do not attempt to contact parents to inform them that children are in the custody of the Russian state. Even in cases where parents have successfully tracked down their children and formally applied to be reunited with them with the Russian authorities, Russian officials have attempted to pressure or persuade the parents and children to consent to transfer, promising creature comforts and a better life. In cases where parents (or other legal guardian) and children are unable to establish contact or parents are unable or unwilling to personally come collect the children, children are deported to Russia even if they personally express a desire to remain in Ukraine.[8] Abducted children have been lied to by Russian officials about their parents having abandoned them.[9]

History

See also: 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and Russian irredentism

I didn’t want to go, but nobody asked me... My friends and family aren't here

Anya, a 14-year old girl from Mariupol who was sent for adoption to Moscow[14]

The first reports of forced deportations to Russia came mid-March 2022, during the siege of Mariupol.[15] Russia started transferring children from Ukrainian territories as early as 2014.[9][16]

On 22 March 2022, Ukraine and U.S. authorities claimed more than 2,300 children had been kidnapped by Russian forces from the Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts.[17][18]

On 30 May 2022, Vladimir Putin signed a decree that streamlined the process of giving Ukrainian orphans or those without parental care Russian citizenship.[19][20]

According to a May 2022 report by the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights in Montreal and the New Lines Institute in Washington, there are "reasonable grounds to conclude" that Russia is in breach of two articles of the 1948 Genocide Convention, among them the forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia, in itself a genocidal act.[6]

By 11 April, two-thirds of Ukraine's 7.5 million children had been displaced according to the U.N.[21] Ukraine's Human Rights Commissioner, Lyudmila Denysova, and U.N. ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya, stated at that time that more than 120,000 children had been deported to Russia.[22][21] By 26 May, more than 238,000 Ukrainian children were reported to have been deported to Russian territory.[19]

Ukraine raised the issue at a OSCE meeting in the beginning of June, where the head of Ukraine's mission Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk quoted a message[specify] from a Ukrainian child forcibly adopted, despite having close living relations.[23]

According to Ukrainska Pravda, Russia have taken 267 orphans from Mariupol to Rostov to be made Russian citizens, supervised by Maria Lvova-Belova. It also reported that Russian authorities had looked for and collected orphaned children, to be taken to an unknown destination.[24]

In June 2022, Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the National Defense Management Center, claimed 1,936,911 Ukrainians had been deported to Russia, of whom 307,423 of were children.[25]

On 7 September a United Nations official reported that there were credible accusations that Russian forces had sent Ukrainian children to Russia for adoption as part of a forced deportation programme, and the US ambassador informed the UN Security Council that more than 1,800 Ukrainian children had been transferred to Russia in July alone.[26]

On the Russian-occupied territory, thousand of Ukrainian children were taken by Russian forces to buses which drove them to Russia. Russian propaganda presented the arrival of these children as a humanitarian and patriotic gesture, describing them as abandoned children rescued from war. State-controlled TV stations showed officials giving teddy bears to these children in Russia. Many had parents in Ukraine and others' were killed or captured by Russian soldiers.[14] Sky News released CCTV footage dated June 2022 of Russian military entering an orphanage in Kherson City to search for orphans. As the locals hid the children because they heard about the plan of the Russians, the Russian military was unable to find anyone there, yet they confiscated files and computer archives from the orphanage.[27]

Another process for child abduction has been documented in a report from Amnesty International, released on 10 November 2022, on "Russia’s Unlawful Transfer And Abuse Of Civilians In Ukraine During ‘Filtration’".[28] During so-called 'filtration' procedures, Russian or pro-Russian troops forcibly separated some children from their parents. An 11-year-old boy made a testimony for Amnesty International:

They took my mom to another tent. She was being questioned... They told me I was going to be taken away from my mom... I was shocked... They didn’t say anything about where my mom was going. A lady from Novoazovsk [child protection] service said maybe my mom would be let go... I didn’t get to see my mom... I have not heard from her since.[28]

One instance of children abduction relates to those in occupied parts of Ukraine, whose parents, egged on by Russian propaganda, voluntarily sent them to summer camps in Crimea to shield them from the war. When Ukraine regained control of their home town, Russians refused to send the children back, detaining them for an indeterminate time, and sometimes maybe transferring them to Russia itself.[29]

Reactions

Ukraine

Ukrainian authorities have claimed Putin's decree to be a way to "legalize the abduction of children from the territory of Ukraine". They have maintained this "grossly violate[s]" the 1949 Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, and the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.[19]

The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine also believes that the actions may qualify as a forcible transfer of children from one human group to another.[19] In a statement: "The most serious international crimes against children committed by Russian high-ranking officials and servicemen in Ukraine will be investigated, and the perpetrators will be prosecuted. Russia will not be able to avoid the strictest accountability."[19]

Russia

In March 2022, Russian children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova has stated that the a group of Ukrainian children transferred to Russia from Mariupol had initially asserted their Ukrainian identity, but that it had since transformed into a love for Russia, saying that she had adopted one of the children herself.[9]

United Nations

UNICEF Emergency Programs Director Manuel Fontaine told CBS News that UNICEF "are looking into how we can track or help on that", though stating they do not have ability to investigate at the moment.[21]

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights announced on 15 June 2022 that her agency had started an investigation into allegations of children forcibly deported from Ukraine to the Russian Federation.[30]

On 15 March 2023, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a report declaring these forced transfers of children are illegal and a war crime. It broadly gave three categories of deported children: those who lost contact with their parents due to the Russian invasion, those who were separated when their parents were sent to a Russian filtration camp, and those who were in institutions. The report concluded:

International humanitarian law prohibits the evacuation of children by a party to the armed conflict, with the exception of a temporary evacuation where compelling reasons relating to the health or medical treatment of the children or, except in occupied territory, their safety, so requires. The written consent of parents or legal guardians is required. In none of the situations which the Commission has examined, transfers of children appear to have satisfied the requirements set forth by international humanitarian law. The transfers were not justified by safety or medical reasons. There seems to be no indication that it was impossible to allow the children to relocate to territory under Ukrainian Government control... The Commission has concluded that the situations it has examined concerning the transfer and deportation of children, within Ukraine and to the Russian Federation respectively, violate international humanitarian law, and amount to a war crime.[4]

Civilians

On 21 December 2022, a French NGO, "For Ukraine, for their Freedom and Ours!", submitted via the law firm Vigo a communication to Karim Khan, Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, to contribute to "the investigation opened on 2 March 2022 by the Office of the Prosecutor, upon referral of the situation in Ukraine by a coordinated group of States Parties to the Rome Statute".[31] The communication "relates to the forcible transfer and large-scale deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, in a clear attempt by the Russian authorities to erase, at least in part, Ukrainians as a national group with a distinct identity. These facts are likely to constitute several of the crimes listed in Article 5 of the Rome Statute, and more specifically the crime of genocide (Article 6-e) and crimes against humanity (Article 7-d)".

Genocide scholar Timothy D. Snyder tweeted: "Kidnapping children en masse and seeking to assimilate them in a foreign culture is genocide according to Article 2 Section E of the 1948 genocide convention."[32]

Sanctions

Russian children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova has been sanctioned by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.[9]

Arrest warrants

Main article: International Criminal Court investigation in Ukraine

On 17 March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Putin and Lvova-Belova, alleging criminal responsibility for the deportations and transfers.[33][34][35] It decided they are covered by articles 8(2)(a)(vii) and article 8(2)(b)(viii) of the Rome Statute and intended by Russia as permanent.[36]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Article II. In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: ...
    (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

References

  1. ^ a b c d Ministry of Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories. Children of War. Archived 24 December 2022 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 1 December 2022.
  2. ^ a b "'Deporting Ukrainian children and "Russifying" them is jeopardizing the future of Ukraine'". Le Monde. 5 August 2022. Archived from the original on 22 December 2022. Retrieved 13 October 2022.
  3. ^ a b c d "Deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia is war crime - UN". BBC News. 16 March 2023. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  4. ^ a b OHCHR (2023). "Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine" (PDF). Geneva. p. 15. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 March 2023. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  5. ^ Borger, Julian; Sauer, Pjotr (17 March 2023). "ICC judges issue arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin over alleged war crimes". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  6. ^ a b Borger, Julian (27 May 2022). "Russia is guilty of inciting genocide in Ukraine, expert report concludes". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 June 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  7. ^ a b Koshiw, Isobel (17 March 2023). "Putin's alleged war crimes: who are the Ukrainian children being taken by Russia?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Bubola, Emma (22 October 2022). "Using Adoptions, Russia Turns Ukrainian Children Into Spoils of War". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g El Deeb, Sarah; Shvets, Anastasiia; Tilna, Elizaveta (13 October 2022). "How Moscow grabs Ukrainian kids and makes them Russians". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  10. ^ a b c d e Koshiw, Isobel (17 March 2023). "Putin's alleged war crimes: who are the Ukrainian children being taken by Russia?". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  11. ^ "Russia deports thousands of Ukrainian children. Investigators say that's a war crime".
  12. ^ a b c Sullivan, Helen (15 February 2023). "Thousands of Ukrainian children put through Russian 're-education' camps, US report finds". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  13. ^ Landler, Mark (17 March 2023). "Arrest Warrant From Criminal Court Pierces Putin's Aura of Impunity". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 18 March 2023.
  14. ^ a b Emma Bubola (22 October 2022). "Using Adoptions, Russia Turns Ukrainian Children Into Spoils of War". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 22 December 2022. Retrieved 9 December 2022.
  15. ^ Mark, Michelle (20 March 2022). "Thousands of residents in a besieged Ukrainian city were 'forcibly' taken to Russia, Mariupol city officials say". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 3 June 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  16. ^ https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng-press#{%22itemid%22 Archived 21 September 2021 at the Wayback Machine Archived 21 September 2021 at the Wayback Machine Archived 21 September 2021 at the Wayback Machine:[%22003-7240618-9852451%22]}
  17. ^ Sullivan, Rory (22 March 2022). "More than 2,300 children 'kidnapped' by Russian forces, says Ukraine". The Independent. ISSN 1741-9743. OCLC 185201487. Archived from the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 17 March 2023. Claim comes days after Mariupol authorities said thousands of its residents had been deported
  18. ^ Cohen, Rebecca (22 March 2022). "US Embassy accuses Russia of kidnapping children amid reports it's deporting thousands of Ukrainians by force". Insider. Archived from the original on 3 June 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  19. ^ a b c d e "Putin's decree "legalizes" abduction of children from Ukraine – MFA". Ukrinform. 31 May 2022. Archived from the original on 3 June 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  20. ^ Dawson, Bethany (9 April 2022). "Russia to fast-track adoptions of Ukrainian children 'forcibly deported' after their parents were killed by Putin's troops, authorities say". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 3 June 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  21. ^ a b c Falk, Pamela (11 April 2022). "Almost two-thirds of Ukraine's 7.5 million children have been displaced in six weeks of war, U.N. says". CBS News. Archived from the original on 3 June 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  22. ^ Ochab, Ewelina U. (10 April 2022). "Ukrainian Children Forcibly Transferred And Subjected To Illegal Adoptions". Forbes. Archived from the original on 11 June 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  23. ^ "Ukraine at OSCE talks about abduction of children by Russians". Ukrinform. 2 June 2022. Archived from the original on 3 June 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  24. ^ Zagorodnyi, Mykhailo (31 May 2022). "Invaders deport children from Mariupol and Volnovakha to Rostov Oblast, Russia: they want to turn them into Russian citizens". Ukrainska Pravda. Archived from the original on 2 June 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  25. ^ Petrenko, Roman (19 June 2022). "Russia says more than 300,000 Ukrainian children "deported"". Ukrainska Pravda. Archived from the original on 5 July 2022. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  26. ^ "UN says 'credible' reports Ukraine children transferred to Russia". al Jazeera. 8 September 2022. Archived from the original on 8 September 2022. Retrieved 8 September 2022.
  27. ^ Dominic Waghorn (22 December 2022). "CCTV shows chilling moment Russian FSB agents and soldiers scour Ukrainian orphanage for children". Sky News. Archived from the original on 24 December 2022. Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  28. ^ a b ""Like A Prison Convoy": Russia's Unlawful Transfer And Abuse of Civilians in Ukraine During 'Filtration'" (PDF). Amnesty International. London. 2022. pp. 6–7, 10–12. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 March 2023. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  29. ^ Balakliya, Richard Spencer. "Give us back our children, Ukraine's liberated parents tell Russia". Archived from the original on 8 January 2023. Retrieved 8 January 2023.
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  32. ^ "Timothy D. Snyder on Twitter, 1 June 2022". Archived from the original on 3 June 2022. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  33. ^ Corder, Mike; Casert, Raf (17 March 2023). "ICC issues arrest warrant for Putin over Ukraine war crimes". Associated Press. Archived from the original on 17 March 2023. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  34. ^ Michaels, Daniel (17 March 2023). "U.N. Court Issues Arrest Warrant for Russia's Putin And Another Kremlin Official". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 17 March 2023. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  35. ^ "ICC issues arrest warrant for Putin on war crime allegations". Al Jazeera. 17 March 2023. Archived from the original on 17 March 2023. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
  36. ^ Karim Ahmad Khan (17 March 2023), Statement by Prosecutor Karim A. A. Khan KC on the issuance of arrest warrants against President Vladimir Putin and Ms Maria Lvova-Belova, Wikidata Q117194521, archived from the original on 17 March 2023

External links

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