Cross posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/29980710
Russia initiated the large-scale deportation of Ukrainian children on February 18, 2022, just six days before launching its full-scale invasion, according to Andrii Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
By the morning of February 19, 2022, more than 2,700 children, primarily from orphanages and boarding schools, had been illegally taken to Russia. The occupation authorities falsified their names, dates, and places of birth and issued them Russian passports. Some of the children were later placed in foster care.
“Russia began kidnapping our children even before the full-scale invasion, which proves that this was a planned crime with the aim of erasing the Ukrainian identity of the children and forcibly assimilating them,” Yermak said.
He added that Russia has attempted to portray the abductions as evacuations due to security risks.
Ukraine has managed to return 1,221 children, but thousands remain in Russia. “We continue to fight for the return of every Ukrainian child abducted by Russia. No exceptions. No conditions,” Yermak stated.
According to the National Information Bureau of Ukraine, as of February 2025, 19,546 Ukrainian children have been deported or forcibly relocated to Russia.
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Russian leader Vladimir Putin and Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova. They are accused of forcibly transferring Ukrainian children from occupied territories to Russia.
On February 6, Daria Zarivna, Advisor to the Head of the President’s Office and Operational Director of Bring Kids Back UA, announced the return of eight Ukrainian children unlawfully taken to temporarily occupied Crimea..