Ukraine's Security Service charges occupation officials over child deportations to Russia
Photo: Mikhail Kushakov (Russian media)
Representatives of the occupation administration of the DNR (Donetsk People's Republic) and three collaborators have been notified of suspicion over the forcible deportation of 367 Ukrainian children to Russia, according to the Office of the Prosecutor General and the Security Service of Ukraine.
The investigation established that the deportation was a planned operation involving the Russian leadership. The head of the DNR announced the so-called "evacuation" on 18 February 2022, while the order to send the children to Russia’s Rostov region had been prepared as early as 16 February.
A Russian national who was acting as the minister of education of the DNR ordered schooling to be suspended and the removal of the children to be organized. The directors of boarding schools prepared lists and coordinated the deportation with local occupation administrations. On 19 February 2022, 364 children were taken to Russia, and another three on 15 March. Some of the children were placed under the custody of Russian families — a total of 159.
The Security Service has notified Russian citizen Mikhail Kushakov — the former minister of education and science of the DNR — of suspicion in absentia, along with four of his accomplices: Igor Lyzov, Oksana Plotnytskaya, Liliia Bilyk (Doskinа), and Irina Shetelya, who organized the illegal transfer of children to Russia’s Kursk and Rostov regions.
The actions of the suspects violate Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which prohibits the forced transfer or deportation of people from occupied territory.
Sanctions have been imposed on four of the suspects, and measures are underway to bring the others to justice.
Deportation of Ukrainian children
Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion, more than 19,500 children have been deported from Ukraine. Thanks to the Bring Kids Back UA initiative, Ukraine has already managed to return more than 1,600 children from Russia.
The deportation of Ukrainian children became the basis for the International Criminal Court in The Hague to issue arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova.
Recently, the number of countries willing to help return children abducted by Russia has grown, including those prepared to assist with children currently in occupied territories.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine will provide its partners with data on the children abducted by Russia, and the first list will soon be on the desks of the leaders of these states.
