A United Nations investigation found on Tuesday that the deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children by Russian authorities since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of the country in 2022 amounted to crimes against humanity.
“In this report, the Commission concluded that crimes against humanity and war crimes by Russian authorities have targeted children, who are among the most vulnerable victims. These crimes have irreversible consequences on their lives and their future,” according to the report to be presented to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday.
The report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine studied the cases of 1,205 children from five oblasts, or regions, in Ukraine and said that 80 per cent of them have yet to return to Ukraine.
Ukrainian authorities say Russia has illegally deported or forcibly displaced more than 19,500 children to Russia and Belarus in violation of the Geneva conventions.
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US-funded research last year showed Russia expanded its forced re-education programmes of deported children.
“The deportations and transfers have originated from various locations across a wide geographic area in Russian-occupied areas in Ukraine, following a well-established pattern of conduct, indicating that these acts have been widespread and systematic,” the UN report said.
Russia denies it is taking children against their will and says it has been evacuating people voluntarily to remove them from the war zone.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that all parties had an interest in continuing Russia-Ukraine peace talks, mediated by the United States, but no date or venue had been agreed yet for the next round.
Russia and Ukraine held three rounds of talks in Turkey last year, and have conducted several more sessions with US mediation in Abu Dhabi and Geneva this year. But they remain far apart on key issues, especially on Russia’s demand for Ukraine to cede control of the whole of its eastern Donetsk region.
The Russian-installed head of Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, told Russian president Vladimir Putin at a meeting shown on state television on Tuesday that Ukraine controls about 15-17 per cent of the region.
Russia claims the whole of the Donetsk region as part of Russia and says it is protected by Russia’s nuclear umbrella.
Ukraine says it will never recognise Russia’s control over parts of Donetsk and other Ukrainian regions partially or fully held by Russia.
Russia rarely gives specific details of exactly how much territory it controls in Ukraine.
The figures given by Pushilin indicate that Russia controls 83 per cent to 85 per cent of Donetsk and therefore more than 90 per cent of the Donbas region, which is made up of Donetsk and Luhansk. – Reuters
