Ukrainian Children under Unlawful Russian Custody

Introduction: 

Beneath the surface of the massive casualty figures lies a cold truth; families torn apart, massacred civilians, and ongoing war crimes. Following their illegal invasion in 2022, Russia has created torture chambers, massacred civilians, abducted children and declared their intentions to destroy the Ukrainian identity – crimes that international law says are genocide. 

Under international law the crime of genocide is not limited to killing, but also efforts to destroy a targeted group, such as the people of Ukraine, and their future – for example, by taking their children and raising them as one’s own. This article explores the several institutions and sources claiming that Russia is doing precisely this, a genocide. 

In a report from the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, Russia has been accused of kidnapping Ukrainian children, and is also deemed to be guilty of doing so in order “to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.” In order to classify an act as a genocide, it is very important to establish that it is done with the intent to destroy a group. The intention of outright destruction needs to be there, otherwise it is not a genocide and might, instead, be a war crime. 

Deportation of Children/Kidnapping of Children 

Vladimir Putin, along with Maria Lvova-Belova, Commissioner for Children’s Rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, have had arrest warrants issued against them by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for investigations about war crimes related to the kidnapping of children. According to the Rome Statute, such kidnappings fall under the war crimes of “Unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement” and “Taking of hostages.”

A statement by the ICC from 2023 voices that Russian authorities are reported to have deported at least several hundred Ukrainian children, resulting in cases such as forced adoption. While other sources, suggest the number may even be in the thousands. The ICC uses conservative language to increase the credibility of their assessment.

This statement by the ICC verifies the idea that Russia has broken international law in regards to at least hundreds of children. According to an investigation by Meduza, these children have been placed with Russian families. Teachers in regions such as Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson are reportedly instructed to “reorient and develop the Russian identity of the younger generation.” These actions suggest a deliberate effort to forcibly integrate these children into Russian culture, which could potentially qualify as an act of genocide according to the report by the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. According to their report, this is happening at a large scale, reaching up to 19,393 displaced Ukrainian children.

The ICC statement says:

“My Office alleges that these acts, amongst others, demonstrate an intention to permanently remove these children from their own country. At the time of these deportations, the Ukrainian children were protected persons under the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

The number of children kidnapped in this way are likely not in the hundreds – the ICC statement is from two years ago, and as an important international institution, it must be very careful when reporting such figures.

In a 2023 United Nations (UN) report, the Ukrainian government alleged that 16,221 children had been kidnapped. Furthermore, in a later document from the 26th of April 2023, they also alleged that there had been 19,393 cases of deportations of Ukrainian children. But even these numbers are likely to be huge underestimations. Grigory Karasin, head of the International Committee in Russia's upper house of parliament, has claimed a far higher number of Ukrainian children under Russian custody. In 2023, he alleged that Russia had brought 700,000 children into Russia. 

“In recent years, 700,000 children have found refuge with us, fleeing the bombing and shelling in conflict-affected areas of Ukraine” Karasin said. While this statement does not directly link Russia to the displacement of Ukrainian children, accounts from some of these children have raised concerns about the nature of their transfers and the role of the Russian authorities. When taken together with the report from New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, it suggests that they are being forcibly removed. 

This is almost what happened to the 16 year old Artem, whose testimony is just one among many. He was taken from his family and placed in a Russian operated orphanage for 6 months, until he eventually managed to borrow a phone from his classmate to call his mother, who then came to retrieve him.

“I studied secretly in a Ukrainian online school,” he says. “To get my 9th-grade certificate, I had to go to Kupiansk. But Russian troops seized all of us, loaded us into a bus, and took us somewhere. At first, we thought it was just another school. But then we realized it was an orphanage.

I was there for six months. We shared a room with nine boys, slept on sagging metal beds, no bedding — just blankets. Terrible sanitation. Every day, we ate barley, stew, strange compote, and crackers. I can’t eat barley anymore—it makes me sick.

Walks were 5–10 minutes long and supervised. Ukrainian was banned, but we spoke it anyway.

Classes were in Russian. When officials visited, we had to wear Russian uniforms and sing the anthem. They handed out printed lyrics — I threw mine out. They threatened to send me to a foster family.

Then I found out my classmate Dima had a phone. He let me call my mom. When she heard my voice, she cried. Four days later, she came and got me.” 

Although Artem’s mom managed to retrieve him, there are still countless Ukrainian families that have not yet been united.

As early as 2022, U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken stated that estimates indicated that around 260,000 Ukrainian children had been deported to Russia. This figure is significantly higher than estimates cited in UN reports or by the Ukrainian government. According to Blinken, these deportations were part of broader operations in which Russian authorities detained and relocated hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian citizens, often to remote regions, and issued Russian documentation; actions that he compared to historical “filtration” operations in other areas, such as Chechnya. These camps have been compared to concentration camps by Ukrainians who have experienced them. Oleksandr, a 49 year old Ukrainian man, recalls that “[...] any small resistance - and they could take you to the basements for interrogation and torture. Everybody was afraid to be taken to Donetsk." 

Additional evidence for Russia's intentions to destroy Ukrainian culture and the nation's future is the “catalog” Russian occupation authorities have created, where Ukrainian children are listed for adoption. On this website you can sort for eye and hair color, among other physical features.

"Some parents were killed by Russian occupation forces, while others had their children’s documents altered to legitimize their abduction." Said Mykola Kuleba, CEO of the Save Ukraine organization. The website is an example of how Russia intends to separate children from their home country and family. 

Russia denies any wrongdoing, claiming in a document that their actions are aimed at “guaranteeing state protection of the rights and legitimate interests of children”. They have listed several things they have done to aid Ukrainian children, as well as examples of children who have been united with their parents. They claim that in June 2023, Maria Lvova-Belova, the Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights – who, along with Vladimir Putin, is wanted by the ICC – sent humanitarian aid totalling over 700kg to 135 children. In this document, they also state that the heads of the Luhansk People's Republic and Donetsk People's Republic, which are internationally recognised territories of Ukraine which Russia has illegally annexed, have requested Russian authorities to accept civilians from these regions. This consists of approximately 2000 children who, under international law, are Ukrainian citizens and have either been transferred to children's institutions in Russia, or placed in Russian foster homes. Additionally, they allege that any child, with or without Russian citizenship, has every right to be reunited with their legal guardian. This stands in contrast to claims from Ukrainian children who say that they were forbidden to contact their guardians – similarly to Artem. Russia also claims that any difficulties in reuniting families are due to “lack of necessary documents, lack of funds for travelling expenses or family disputes.” 

Moreover, Russia declares to have provided camps for children that are affected by the war. These camps are designed to rehabilitate them; they attend training, master classes, sports sections, go on excursions, and get acquainted with the history and culture of Russia. In a UN report, this has been described as an act violating the Geneva Convention, as it counters the children's entitlement to respect for their honour, manners, customs and cultural identity. Russia claims that these camps did not include military training, however the UN report contradicts this. The UN report claims that children in occupied territories underwent military education and training both at school and in organized patriotic youth groups, and were exposed to military propaganda urging them to enlist in the Russian army. 

This article has only traced one part of Russia’s alleged genocidal campaign. In the next part of this series, we will look at how Russia massacres men, women, and children indiscriminately.