The Security Service of Ukraine, together with the Office of the Prosecutor General, has formally charged the former so-called ‘Minister of Education and Science of the DPR’, Mikhail Kushakov, and his accomplices with organizing the forced deportation of 35 Ukrainian children to Russia. The agencies announced this on April 10, emphasizing the newly documented war crimes committed by Russian officials in the occupied territories of Donetsk.
This is reported by Finway
Organizers of the Deportation and Details of the Crime
According to the investigation, the crime involved Russian citizen Mikhail Kushakov, who held the position of ‘former Minister of Education and Science of the DPR’, the head of the ‘administration of the city of Donetsk of the DPR’, Alexey Kulemsin, and the director of the seized children’s home No. 1 ‘Teremok’, Raisa Prilipko. This group of individuals, acting on orders from the Kremlin, organized the illegal transportation of 35 children aged 4 to 6 years from the Donetsk preschool children’s home ‘Teremok’ to the Rostov region of Russia on February 18, 2022.
The investigation established that after the children were transported, they were placed in various social institutions in Russia, and later, with the assistance of the higher military-political leadership of the Russian Federation, 12 Ukrainian children were illegally handed over to Russian citizens under the guise of guardianship.
“The investigation found that the young children were placed in various social institutions in the aggressor country. Subsequently, with the assistance of the higher military-political leadership of the Russian Federation, 12 Ukrainian children were illegally handed over to Russian citizens under the guise of guardianship.”
Legal Assessment and International Reaction
The Security Service of Ukraine emphasizes that these actions constitute a gross violation of Article 49 of the Convention (IV) on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which explicitly prohibits the forced relocation or deportation of people from occupied territory to the territory of the occupying state. All three individuals have been charged in absentia with committing war crimes as part of a group acting in concert. It is known that the suspects are hiding in Russia and in temporarily occupied areas of Ukraine, while law enforcement continues a comprehensive effort to hold them accountable.
In March, the Independent International Commission of the UN for Investigating Violations during the War of Russia against Ukraine classified the deportation, illegal transfer, and forced disappearance of children as crimes against humanity. The delay in the repatriation of Ukrainian children was also recognized as a war crime. Details of the investigation over the past year are described in the commission’s new report.
According to official Ukrainian data, since the beginning of the full-scale war, more than 20,000 Ukrainian children have found themselves in Russia and in occupied areas. Meanwhile, the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, reported the probable illegal export of about 150,000 children from Ukraine, while the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Children’s Rights, Daria Gerasimchuk, indicated a possible number of ‘several hundred thousand children’, approximately 200,000 to 300,000.
The International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants in March 2023 for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Children’s Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of committing war crimes related to the forced deportation and transfer of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine.
Maria Lvova-Belova herself stated in July 2023 that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russia has ‘accepted’ about 4.8 million residents of Ukraine, of which more than 700,000 are children. According to her, most of the children allegedly arrived in Russia with their parents or relatives.