Global Courant
A Russian politician and two suspected Ukrainian associates have been charged with war crimes by Kiev for allegedly deporting dozens of orphans.
They are the first suspects charged by Ukraine, which says more than 19,000 children have been illegally transferred to Russia or Russian-controlled territory.
The charges follow a wider investigation conducted in cooperation with the Hague-based International Criminal Court, according to an exclusive Reuters report.
The 48 orphans, aged between one and four, were allegedly taken from the southern city of Kherson in September and October and resettled in Moscow and Russian-occupied Crimea.
If proven, this is a violation of the laws and customs of war under the 1949 Geneva Conventions.
“We don’t know what these children are like, in what conditions they are kept or what their fate is,” said Yuliia Usenko, head of the department for the protection of children’s interests at the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine.
They may have been illegally adopted by Russian citizens, or
have been sent to Russian institutions, she added.
Earlier today, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted that Moscow had evacuated children from orphanages in war zones.
The Kremlin has repeatedly rejected accusations that Russia violated children’s rights in Ukraine.
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