Occupation officials involved in deportation of 53 Ukrainian children to Russia served with notices of suspicion in absentia

Four occupation "officials" involved in the deportation of 53 children from three children's homes in temporarily occupied Donetsk and Makiivka to Russia have been served with notices of suspicion in absentia.

Source: Ukraine's Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko

Details: The children were illegally taken to Russia in October 2022.

"This was not an evacuation. This was a planned deportation of Ukrainian children, organised at the highest level of Russia's military-political leadership," Kravchenko said.

According to the investigation, four officials carried out the crime in the occupied territory:

• "Donetsk People's Republic" health minister Dmytro Hartsev provided administrative processing
• Svitlana Maiboroda, head of the occupation "State Service for Family and Children's Affairs", coordinated transport, the transfer of personal files and subsequent placement of the children
• heads of children's homes Viacheslav Vysiahin and Viktor Honcharov organised the gathering of the children and personally accompanied them during their removal

Law enforcement established that the Ukrainian children were transported by bus to Rostov-on-Don, Russia. From there, they were flown by a special Rossiya flight detachment aircraft to Moscow Oblast and distributed among social centres.

Immediately after arrival, Russian agencies began processing documents under Russian law: granting the Ukrainian children Russian citizenship, entering them into the state database and placing them with Russian families.

The children's profiles subsequently appeared on an adoption portal. The investigation established that 28 Ukrainian children were placed under the guardianship of Russian families.

"To this day, not a single child from this group has been returned to Ukraine. They have effectively spent their entire conscious lives in the aggressor state. They are growing up in a Russian educational, informational and cultural environment. A foreign identity is being imposed on them and attempts are being made to permanently sever their connection with Ukraine.

This is not a side effect of deportation. This is its continuation: a deliberate state policy of Russification of Ukrainian children," the prosecutor general said.

Dmytro Hartsev, Svitlana Maiboroda, Viacheslav Vysiahin and Viktor Honcharov have been served with in absentia suspicion notices for violations of the laws and customs of war committed by prior conspiracy of a group of individuals.

"Their decisions, orders, meetings held, transfer of documents and the entire deportation route have been documented in detail. Notices of suspicion served in absentia are only the first step towards the personal accountability of each of them. War crimes have no statute of limitations," Kravchenko stressed.

Background: Defence Intelligence of Ukraine previously named 10 more individuals involved in the militarisation of Ukrainian children under occupation.

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