Ukraine investigates role of Belarus in deportation of children

The relevant statement was made by the Office of the Prosecutor General to Reuters, Ukrinform reports.

"The fact and circumstances of taking Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to the so-called 'recreational camps' in Belarus are currently under investigation in the mentioned criminal proceedings," the Prosecutor General's Office said.

They also noted that criminal proceedings had been initiated over the forced transportation/deportation of more than 19,000 children from the occupied Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Kharkiv regions, including to Belarus.

This statement was made following a report by the Belarusian opposition in exile that 2,150 Ukrainian children, including orphans aged 6 to 15, had been taken to so-called health camps and sanatoriums in Belarus.

The Belarusian opposition claims that Ukrainian children were taken to the Belarusian sanatorium "Zoloti Pisky" in the Homel region and the sanatorium-resort camp "Ostroshytskyi Horodok" in the Minsk region.

From the Russian-controlled territories of Ukraine, the children were taken by bus to Russia and then by train to Belarus, the opposition said.

"Lukashenko personally ordered the transfers of orphans to Belarus and facilitated their arrival by financial and organisational support," the statement said.

The office of Lukashenko didn't respond to the agency's request regarding the published facts of deportation.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, on March 17, the ICC Pre-Trial Chamber issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Russian children's ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova.

The Russian president and his authorized representative are suspected of war crimes - deportation and illegal displacement of the population, in particular children, from the occupied territory of Ukraine.