Europol identifies up to 45 Ukrainian children forcibly taken by Russia

Ivanna Kostina, Tetyana Oliynyk — 20 April, 22:00

A child with a Ukrainian flag. Photo: Getty Images

Europol, as part of a joint initiative involving the International Criminal Court (ICC) and experts from EU countries and the US, has helped identify around 45 Ukrainian children who were forcibly taken from Ukraine by Russian forces.

Source: European Pravda citing Europol

Details: Experts from 18 countries, including the UK and the US, used open-source intelligence to locate the children over two days. This included analysing data on military units involved in the removal of children from Russian-occupied territories, platforms where images of the children believed to have been abducted were posted and information about individuals who may have taken them in.

This was the third operation of its kind, aimed at supporting the Ukrainian authorities in repatriating the children and gathering evidence of potential war crimes.

Two years ago, the ICC, with support from the EU and the US, established the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression (ICPCA) to systematically collect evidence for possible future trials.

The number of children identified represents only a small fraction of the estimated 19,500 Ukrainian children who have been deported or forcibly transferred from the temporarily occupied territories during the full-scale war.

Countries involved in the initiative included Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands (co-organiser), Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Ukraine, the UK and the US.

Organisations participating in the project included the International Criminal Court's Office of the Prosecutor, Mnemonic, Global Rights Compliance, Osint for Ukraine and Truth Hounds.

Background:

In August, Melania Trump raised the issue of Ukrainian children in Russia in a personal letter to Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin. US President Donald Trump personally delivered the letter to Putin during their talks in Alaska.
Afterwards, the US first lady said she had an "open channel of communication" with Putin regarding the return of abducted Ukrainian children.
In early April, the White House said that Melania Trump had helped secure the return of Ukrainian children to their families for the fourth time.

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