Russia claims to take more than 700,000 Ukrainian children

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, about 4.8 million Ukrainians have been deported to Russia, including more than 700,000 children.

That's according to a report by the Russian Ombudsman for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, Ukrinform reports.

The commissioner stated that about 1,500 children from institutions for orphans or children left without care were taken to Russia. 288 children from the Donetsk region were placed in foster care in Russia. Children from the territories of Luhansk region allegedly returned to their institutions, but 92 children were later "placed" with Russian families. Between April and October 2022, another 380 children left without parental care from the territories controlled by the so-called DPR and LPR illegal armed groups were "placed" in Russian foster families.

The report notes that in November 2022, an orphanage in Oleshky, Kherson region, was in close proximity to the front line, and 52 children with severe pathologies were "temporarily" transferred to "safe territory" in occupied Crimea.

The report also confirms that in the late summer and fall of 2022, "due to the situation on the front line," children "from Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv regions and other territories" were sent "to sanatoriums and recreation organizations" in the occupied Crimea and the Krasnodar Territory of the Russian Federation.

As reported, according to official data from the Ukrainian authorities, 19,546 children have been deported from Ukraine to Russia since February 24, 2022. These are only the cases that were officially recorded - when a parent, guardian, or witness of a child's deportation reported it to the National Information Bureau of Ukraine. So far, 386 children have been returned to Ukraine.

On March 17, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber issued arrest warrants for Russian President Putin and Children's Ombudsman Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of war crimes - deportation and illegal displacement of the population, including children, from the occupied territory of Ukraine.