UN commission: Russia's deportation of Ukrainian children is a crime against humanity

An independent United Nations (UN) commission has determined that Russia’s deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children constitutes crimes against humanity, as reported by UN News following the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine’s latest report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva. The Commission has verified the deportation or transfer of 1,205 children from Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine to Russia or other occupied territories — and four years on, 80% of those children have still not been returned to their families. Scores remain missing, with parents and guardians still unaware of their whereabouts.

Commission chair Erik Møse was direct: “The Russian authorities committed two types of crimes against humanity — deportation and forcible transfer of children, as well as their enforced disappearance.”

Russia had claimed the relocations were humanitarian evacuations for safety reasons, but the Commission found the evidence told a very different story.

Commissioner Pablo de Greiff detailed how Russian authorities placed children with families or institutions across 21 regions of Russia and occupied Ukraine, following what he described as “a carefully organized plan” executed “under the leadership at the highest level of the Russian Federation state apparatus.” The Commission submitted 39 written requests for information to Russian authorities on the issue — and received no reply. Among children who did return, investigators documented neglect, insufficient food and medical care, and in one case, the suicide of a young adolescent who had expressed a desire to go home.

The report also turned a spotlight on the treatment of Russian soldiers, with testimonies from 85 deserters describing extreme violence by commanders — mock executions, severe beatings, and soldiers being “treated like cannon fodder.” Foreign nationals recruited from 17 countries were also found to have been deceived with promises of civilian jobs, then coerced into signing military contracts in Russian they could not read before being sent to the front lines.

The ICC issued an arrest warrant for President Vladimir Putin in March 2023 over the deportation of Ukrainian children. The Commission’s latest findings add significant new weight to that case — and to the growing body of evidence that what is happening to Ukraine’s children is not a byproduct of war, but a deliberate policy.