"Former DNR minister" and three of his accomplices were notified of suspicion over the deportation of 53 Ukrainian children to Russia — Prosecutor General
Kyiv • UNN
In 2022, 53 children from Donetsk and Makiivka were taken to Russia. Twenty-eight were placed under the guardianship of Russians; not a single child has returned.
Law enforcement officers have notified the so-called "DPR ex-minister" and three of his accomplices in absentia of suspicion over the deportation of 53 Ukrainian children to Russia, Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko said on Tuesday on social media, UNN reports.
They abducted children to make them Russians. Those involved in the deportation of 53 Ukrainian children identified
According to him, in October 2022, 53 children from three childcare centers in the temporarily occupied Donetsk and Makiivka were illegally taken to Russia.
"This was not an evacuation. It was a planned deportation of Ukrainian children, organized at the highest level of the Russian military and political leadership," he stressed.
According to the investigation, the crime was carried out directly in the occupied territory by four officials.
"The so-called "DPR Minister of Health" Dmytro Hartsev ensured the administrative processing. Svitlana Maiboroda, head of the occupying "State Service for Family and Children Affairs," coordinated the transportation, the transfer of personal files, and the subsequent placement of the children. The heads of the childcare centers, Viacheslav Vysiahin and Viktor Honcharov, organized their collection and personally accompanied them during the removal," the Prosecutor General said.
According to him, the children were taken by bus to Rostov-on-Don. From there, they were transported by aircraft of the special flight detachment "Russia" to the Moscow region and distributed among social centers, he added.
"Immediately after their arrival, Russian agencies began processing documents under Russian legislation: granting citizenship, entering them into the state database, and transferring them to Russian families. The children's profiles quickly appeared on the adoption portal. It is known that 28 of them were placed under the guardianship of Russians. To date, not a single child from this group has been returned to Ukraine," the Prosecutor General stated.
As Kravchenko noted, "in fact, they have spent virtually their entire conscious lives in the aggressor country. They are growing up in a Russian educational, informational, and cultural environment. They are being forced to adopt a foreign identity, and attempts are being made to completely sever their ties with Ukraine." "This is not a side effect of deportation. It is its continuation: a deliberate state policy of Russification of Ukrainian children," he stressed.
Dmytro Hartsev, Svitlana Maiboroda, Viacheslav Vysiahin, and Viktor Honcharov were notified in absentia of suspicion of violating the laws and customs of war, committed by a group of persons acting in prior conspiracy
"Their decisions, orders, meetings held, document transfers, and the entire deportation route have been thoroughly documented. The notices of suspicion in absentia are only the first step toward the personal accountability of each of them. War crimes are not subject to a statute of limitations. We will continue our work," he emphasized.