Two Russian-installed Donetsk officials suspected of deportation of 31 children to Russia for "treatment"

Two officials from the Russian occupation administration in Donetsk have been served with a notice of suspicion in absentia in Ukraine for orchestrating the deportation of 31 Ukrainian children under the guise of medical treatment. Most of the children taken to Russia are still there.

Source: Prosecutor General's Office; Bring Kids Back UA, a Ukrainian government-led effort to bring Ukrainian children home from temporarily Russian-occupied territories

Details: The identities of the suspects were revealed by the Book of Executioners, a Ukrainian project documenting Russian war criminals and those who betrayed Ukraine. They are 52-year-old Donetsk native Oleksii Kulemzin, the so-called head of the "city administration", and 57-year-old Olena Verbovska, a native of Ukrainsk in Donetsk Oblast and the so-called head of Donetsk's "department for children".

Investigators have found that in May 2022, the head of the so-called " Donetsk People's Republic " ordered the relocation of children to Russia, ostensibly for medical treatment. The occupation administration in Donetsk implemented the order. [The "Donetsk People's Republic", or "DPR", is a self-proclaimed unrecognised quasi-state formation backed by Russia in Ukraine's Donetsk Oblast – ed.]

Sixteen boys and 15 girls were brought to the so-called "Children's Social Centre" and taken by bus to Rostov Oblast in Russia. From there, the Ukrainian children were flown to the Polyany sanatorium in Moscow Oblast, which is part of the Children's Medical Centre under the Russian Presidential Administration.

According to the Book of Executioners project, the occupiers used this scheme to take orphans and children deprived of parental care out of Ukraine.

"The children did not require medical treatment outside the region, and there were no hostilities in Donetsk at the time that threatened their lives. Therefore, there were no grounds for their evacuation," the project's creators say.

Once the children were outside Ukraine, the occupation administration decided that they would not be required to return. Instead, they were to be placed under guardianship in Moscow Oblast.

Since then, only six children from this group have been brought back to Ukraine, while the rest remain in Russia.

Kulemzin and Verbovska have now been served with a notice of suspicion of violating the laws and customs of war, committed by a group of persons acting by prior agreement (Articles 28.2 and 438.1 of the Criminal Code). They face between eight and 12 years in prison.

Sanctions have been imposed on both suspects. The Book of Executioners project added that in 2024, other participants in the deportation of the children were also named suspects: so-called "DPR" head Denys Pushylin, his "children's rights adviser" Eleonora Fedorenko, and the director of the "State Service for Children of the DPR", Svitlana Maiboroda.

Quote from the Prosecutor General's Office: "Law enforcement officials are systematically documenting Russia's crimes against Ukrainian children – illegal transfer and deportation, identity changes, militarisation and preparation for service in the Russian armed forces.

An investigation has established that around 6,000 children in temporarily occupied Donetsk Oblast were involved in the Russian military-patriotic movement Yunarmiya between 2019 and 2025. They were taught how to handle weapons and prepared for military service. After reaching adulthood, some of the participants joined the Russian armed forces and took part in the war against Ukraine."

Background: Law enforcement officers previously named two employees of a detention centre in Kursk, Russia, as suspects in a case involving the systematic torture of Ukrainian civilians.

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