UN international commission recognises Russia's deportation of Ukrainian children as crime against humanity

The UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine has recognised Russia's forced transfer and deportation of children as crimes against humanity.

Source: a report presented at the 61st session of the UN Human Rights Council, as reported by Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko and Daria Herasymchuk, Presidential Adviser and Commissioner for Children's Rights and Child Rehabilitation

Details: The international commission has documented at least 1,205 cases of Russia taking Ukrainian children from Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv oblasts.

More than 80% of the children are still under Russian control. They were placed in Russian families and institutions in 21 regions of Russia. Ukrainian children have also been given Russian citizenship and added to adoption databases.

The report found that Russia is pursuing a coordinated state policy for which officials at various levels are responsible, including Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.

"For us, this is not a symbolic wording," Herasymchuk wrote. "It is an important legal conclusion that directly names the essence of what Russia has been doing to Ukrainian children since 2014 and continues to do now.

This is much more than physically taking a child out of an occupied territory. It is an attempt to sever them from their family, language, memory, environment, and ultimately from Ukraine itself. That is why we consistently speak about a systematic policy aimed at destroying Ukrainian children's identity."

The prosecutor general added that Ukrainian law enforcement officers contributed to the work on the report and provided the necessary evidentiary materials. Over 20 people involved in the deportation of children have been served with notices of suspicion in Ukraine.

Background:

• In 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Putin and Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova. They are accused of the illegal deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children from occupied territories.
• In February 2026, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine said it is verifying information about more than 19,000 cases of the forced transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia.

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