Ukraine is investigating an involvement of Belarus in the deportation of Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied territories. This is considered a war crime and one of the signs of genocide.
The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine told Reuters about this.
"The fact and circumstances of the removal of Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to the so-called health camps in Belarus are currently being investigated as part of the said criminal proceedings," they noted.
Also, the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office said that criminal proceedings were initiated due to the fact of the forced transportation/deportation of more than 19 thousand children from the occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Kharkiv regions, in particular to Belarus.
- On May 23, the Belarusian opposition stated that Belarus allegedly took part in the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children. The document states that 2,150 Ukrainian children, including orphans aged six to 15, were sent to camps and sanatoriums on the territory of Belarus.
- On April 27, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) recognized the deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to the territory of Russia as genocide. PACE called on the International Criminal Court to consider the possibility of criminal prosecution for this crime.
- Russia deported 19 393 children from Ukraine and created more than 70 camps where they are forcibly held. Since part of the territory of Ukraine is under occupation and the authorities do not have access to it, it may actually be about several hundred thousand kidnapped children.
- The deportation of Ukrainian children is one of Russiaʼs war crimes. For this, on March 17, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin and the Russian Childrenʼs Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova.