Russia transferred 1,184 Ukrainian children from the occupied territories to temporary care in families — this is three times more than the official number (380 children).
This is reported by the Russian edition "Important stories" with reference to the report on the activities of the government of the Rostov region for 2022.
These are children who arrived "without legal representatives from the territories of Donbas and Ukraine." From this wording, it is not clear what status the children have. These may be orphans who lived in orphanages in the occupied territories or lost their parents during the war.
It is not known whether all of the 1,184 Ukrainian children remained in Russian families because a temporary guardian is appointed for a period of six to eight months, if he does not establish permanent guardianship during this time, its effect is terminated.
Another option is also possible: these 1,184 children included those who left for Russia with other relatives (grandmother, aunt) and whose parents remained in the occupied territories. Children of childrenʼs institutions who were deported en masse to Russia can also be taken into account here — usually the director of the institution issues guardianship over them.
At the same time, the report of the Ministry of Education states that in 2022, only 534 children were placed in foster care in the Rostov region. The publication assumes that the rest were simply sent to other regions.
Russian Commissioner for the Protection of Children Maria Lvova-Belova in Nizhny Novgorod Oblast with Ukrainian children who were taken out of the occupied territory of Donetsk Oblast on September 22, 2022.
Journalists managed to find out the whereabouts of 290 Ukrainian children — they were distributed among 23 regions of the Russian Federation. The largest number of children — 47 — are in the Novosibirsk region. At least 30 children ended up in families in the Moscow region, 25 in Kaluga, and 24 in Nizhny Novgorod. Another 21 deported children live in families in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District, 20 in the Leningrad Region. Up to 20 children were taken to the rest of the regions.
- The deportation of Ukrainian children is one of Russiaʼs war crimes, for which the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Putin and the childrenʼs ombudsman of the Russian Federation Maria Lvova-Belova. Currently, at least 19,453 Ukrainian children are known to have been forcibly deported to Russia. Ukraine also has evidence that Belarus participates in the deportation of Ukrainian children.
- On April 27, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe 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.