The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine welcomes the publication of the report of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine and the Commission’s conference room paper on the deportation, transfer and enforced disappearances of Ukrainian children.
The published materials contain new substantial evidence of serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights committed by the Russian Federation during its armed aggression against Ukraine.
Particular attention should be paid to the Commission’s findings regarding Russia's crimes related to the deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children. The Commission’s conference paper provides a detailed analysis of new cases of such crimes, as well as tracking the further movements of children and obstacles to their return.
The evidence collected indicates that the deportations and transfers of children are large-scale and systematic in nature and are carried out as part of an organized policy of the Russian Federation. The Commission established that the Russian authorities not only transferred children from the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, but also created conditions for their long-term placement in the territory of the Russian Federation, including through placement in foster families or adoption, as well as granting them Russian citizenship.
In its findings, the Commission confirms that the deportations and transfers of Ukrainian children committed by the Russian authorities constitute war crimes under international humanitarian law. At the same time, the unjustified delay in the repatriation of deported civilians constitutes a separate war crime.
The document also notes that the Russian authorities systematically failed to inform parents, relatives or Ukrainian authorities about the fate and whereabouts of deported children. In many cases, this resulted in prolonged family separations and actual enforced disappearances of children. The Commission established that such enforced disappearances were widespread and systemic in nature and, together with the deportations and transfers of children, were carried out as an element of the state policy of the Russian Federation. This provides grounds for qualifying such actions as crimes against humanity.
The evidence collected by the Commission indicates that the deportations and transfers of children were carried out in coordination between various Russian authorities at the federal, regional and occupation levels. The Commission’s materials also indicate that these actions were coordinated at the highest level of the Russian state, including the President of the Russian Federation, Putin, and the structures accountable to him.
The Commission’s report also contains new evidence of other serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law committed by the Russian Federation in the context of its armed aggression against Ukraine. In particular, it concerns the facts of torture and ill-treatment of civilians and prisoners of war, enforced disappearances, as well as other gross violations of international law.
The Commission also established numerous violations of the right to a fair trial. In particular, this concerns the unlawful prosecution of Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war in the courts of the Russian Federation and in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, the fabrication of evidence, the use of torture to obtain confessions, and the systematic disregard of fundamental procedural guarantees provided for by international law.
In addition, the report contains information about the recruitment of foreign nationals from at least 17 foreign countries (referring only to verified cases, although the number may be higher) into the Russian occupation forces to participate in the war against Ukraine, including through deception, coercion or exploitation of people’s vulnerable situations.
The Commission’s conclusions once again confirm the need to ensure full and inevitable accountability for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international law committed in the context of the Russian aggression against Ukraine. The materials collected by the Commission constitute an important evidentiary basis for further investigations and judicial proceedings at the national and international levels.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine calls on the international community to increase pressure on the aggressor state in order to stop gross violations of international law, ensure access of international monitoring and humanitarian mechanisms to places of detention of Ukrainian citizens, secure return of deported children and bring those responsible to justice.
Ukraine highly appreciates the work of the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine and emphasizes the importance of extending its mandate.