Three accomplices of the occupiers have been notified of charges related to the deportation of 213 children

The Security Service of Ukraine and the Office of the Prosecutor General have formally charged, in absentia, three representatives of the Russian occupation administration in Donetsk Oblast who were involved in the mass removal of Ukrainian children. 

This was reported by the SBU.

The individuals involved in the case are the so-called former “Minister of Education” of the “DPR” Mikhail Kushakov, the head of the Donetsk occupation administration Alexei Kulemzin, and the director of the seized boarding school Olga Volkova. According to the investigation, in February 2022, they organized the illegal deportation of 213 students from Donetsk Boarding School No. 1 to the Rostov region of the Russian Federation.

Investigators established that 78 Ukrainian children from this institution were subsequently placed in the care of Russian families, where they remain today. Such actions constitute a gross violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which explicitly prohibits the forced relocation of persons from occupied territories to the aggressor state. The perpetrators are currently charged with war crimes committed by a group of individuals acting in concert. Since the suspects are hiding in temporarily uncontrolled territories, efforts are ongoing to locate them and bring them to justice.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has imposed new sanctions against foreign nationals and companies linked to the deportation and forced re-education of Ukrainian children.

Ukraine’s Ambassador to the Netherlands, Andriy Kostin, stated that Russia’s actions regarding the removal of children from Ukraine constitute the largest mass abduction in Europe since World War II.