A Ukrainian flag hangs at a schoolhouse converted into a field hospital, in Mostyska, western Ukraine, Thursday, March 24, 2022. NARIMAN EL-MOFTY / AP
Moscow's deportation and forcible transfer of children from Ukraine to Russia amounts to a crime against humanity, a United Nations team of investigators said Tuesday, March 10. The UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said it had collected evidence leading it to conclude that "Russian authorities have committed the crimes against humanity of deportation and forcible transfer, as well as of enforced disappearance of children." The probe was established by the UN Human Rights Council shortly after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
The inquiry said Russia had deported or transferred "thousands" of children from occupied areas of Ukraine, of which it had so far confirmed 1,205 cases. "Four years on, 80 percent of the children deported or transferred in the cases investigated by the commission have not returned," it said. Moscow has failed to establish a system facilitating returns, and has instead focused on long-term placement of the children with families or institutions in Russia, while relatives were not informed of their fate.
