UN investigators accuse Russia of ‘war crime’ against deported Ukrainian children

Russia’s deportation of Ukrainian children qualifies for “a war crime,” United Nations investigators.

“Russian authorities have committed unlawful transfers and deportations of civilians and of other protected persons within Ukraine or to the Russian Federation, respectively,” In a new report, an independent commission from the United Nations Human Rights Council came up with a conclusion. “This is a war crime.”

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The panel of independent investigators conducted more than 600 interviews across Ukraine, Estonia, Georgia to find their conclusion. Their assessment adds international credibility to Ukrainian allegations that Russian officials have seized thousands of Ukrainian children — an allegation that could lend itself to a charge of genocide against Russia.

“We have not found that there has been a genocide within Ukraine,” Erik Mose (chairman of the commission), a former Norwegian Supreme Court justice told reporters on Thursday. “We have noted that there are some aspects which may raise questions with respect to that crime … but we have not yet put in any conclusion here.”

The deportation of Ukrainian children is only one of many war crimes that UN investigators have identified, along with the execution of civilians as well as widespread accounts of torture.

“Sexual violence amounting to torture and the threat of such against women and men have been important aspects of the torture exercised by Russian authorities,” The investigators wrote. “Rapes were committed at gunpoint, with extreme brutality and with acts of torture, such as beatings and strangling … In one incident, the victim was pregnant and begged, in vain, the soldiers to spare her; she had a miscarriage a few days later. Perpetrators also, in some instances, executed or tortured husbands and other male relatives. Family members, including children, were sometimes forced to watch perpetrators rape their loved ones.”

For U.S. officials who are charged with assessing Russia’s attempt to commit genocide according to international law, forced relocation could prove particularly significant.

“The abduction of children is one of the indicia of genocide. It’s one of the ways in which genocide can be committed,” Ambassador Beth Van Schaak was the State Department’s chief official for global crime justice. She spoke to reporters in February. “We often think about genocide as being the equivalent of mass killing, but the treaty itself actually defines other forms of genocide.”

International investigators are still unsure of the exact number of children who were affected by this resettlement program. Ukrainian officials claim that they have identified more then 16,000 children deported to Russia. The investigators also note that both countries at different times. “have declared that hundreds of thousands of children have been transferred from Ukraine to the Russian Federation” Since the inception of the campaign last year to overthrow the Ukrainian government.

“The transfers were not justified by safety or medical reasons,” The UN report says so. “There seems to be no indication that it was impossible to allow the children to relocate to territory under Ukrainian Government control. It also does not appear that Russian authorities sought to establish contact with the children’s relatives or with Ukrainian authorities.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin designed the invasion to protect Russia’s sovereignty. “history, culture, spiritual space” It was denied that Ukraine has ever had an “authentic statehood.” He repeated his lengthy written argument that Russians were better than Ukrainians in this statement. “one people” — a fraternal gloss on his condemnation of “the disease of nationalism” Ukraine

“The whole lead up to this war was the idea of the denial of the Ukrainian identity — saying that these people really were Russian,” In a recent interview, Dr. Cynthia Buckley, a social demographer expert who specializes in former Soviet Union countries, spoke to the Washington Examiner. “There is an insidious ethnic component here that is quite frightening … part of it is a deep-seated authoritarian ideology that borders on paranoia that basically says ‘If you are not with us, you’re against us. and we want as many with us as possible, and we want as few against us as possible.'”

Some evidence supporting the commission’s decision “war crime” This assessment is based on Russian government manipulations to confer citizenship upon the Ukrainian children. “to create a framework in which some of the children may end up remaining permanently in the Russian Federation,” According to the UN commission. The UN commission found that Putin’s official for children’s rights had spoken openly about this prospect.

“Now that the children have become Russian citizens, temporary guardianship can become permanent,” In July, Maria Lvova Belova, Russia’s president-designate for children’s rights, posted on social media.

Russian officials declined “to establish meaningful communication” The investigators said they worked with the commissioner during the entire probe. They described the officials as not helpful in facilitating the unification of Ukrainian families.

“Russian authorities violated their obligation under international humanitarian law to facilitate in every possibly way the reunion of families dispersed as a result of the armed conflict,” According to the report. “In addition, the citizenship and family placement measures which may have a profound implication on a child’s identity are in violation of the right of a child to preserve his or her identity, including nationality, name and family relations without unlawful interference, as recognized by international human rights law.”

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Mose, chairman of the commission, stated that the probe could look into a genocide finding during subsequent investigations.

“We are absolutely aware of these possibilities, and we will pursue this if our mandate is being prolonged,” He stated. “Where we will go depends on what we will find.”