The Conflict Monitor, a State Department-backed program, released an independent report on its website on Tuesday detailing the vast network of Russian-controlled entities used to move thousands of Ukrainian children to Russian-controlled territories. the Russian government.
“The unlawful transfer and expulsion of protected persons constitutes a serious violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention for the Protection of Civilian Persons and constitutes a war crime,” the report states. “The fact that we are talking about the displacement and deportation of children is immoral in every way. Russia must immediately end forced displacements and deportations and return children to their families or legal guardians.
The State Department has urged Russia to allow independent external monitors access to relevant facilities in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories and in Russia itself and to provide registration lists of resettled and deported Ukrainian children. .
The report was prepared by the Conflict Observatory Partner Program, Yale Humanities Research Laboratory.
It lists 43 institutions where the Russian government has resettled Ukrainian children, some of them thousands of miles from home. The report provides evidence of a systematic effort by the Russian government to sever ties between abducted children and their relatives in Ukraine, prevent the children from returning to Ukraine, and “re-educate” them to become pro-Russian. It also describes the transfer of Ukrainian children for adoption to families in Russia.
The Conflict Observatory is a program that independently collects and documents evidence of abuses during Russia’s war against Ukraine. A Yale University study identified several dozen Russian officials and others involved in the resettlement and deportation of Ukrainian children.
