Investigators identify pseudo-officials who forcibly took 15 Ukrainian children to Russia - Prosecutor General's Office

Forced relocation of Ukrainian children to Russia - two pseudo-officials of illegally created institutions by the occupiers have been notified of suspicion. This was reported by the Office of the Prosecutor General, UNN reports.

Under the procedural supervision of the Prosecutor General's Office, two Ukrainian citizens were served a notice of suspicion of forcible transfer of 15 status children from Novopetrivsk special school of Mykolaiv Regional Council. Their actions are classified as violation of the laws and customs of war (Part 2 of Article 28, Part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Details

Investigators found that one of the suspects is the so-called "deputy head of the Department of Youth Policy, Family and Sports of the Kherson Regional Military Administration". His accomplice is the so-called "rector of Kherson Agrarian University".

The prosecutor's office reported that in July 2022, there were 15 children in a special school in the temporarily occupied Mykolaiv region. However, the Russian military, together with the director of the municipal institution and her husband, forcibly moved all the children to the Center for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation of Children in the village of Stepanivka in the Kherson region. And from there  , in October of the same year, the pseudo-officials, together with Russian military personnel, took the children from the rehabilitation center and brought them to the river station in Kherson. Prosecutors noted that the children were subjected to threats and psychological pressure.

From Kherson, the children were taken to Oleshky, on the left bank of the Kherson region, and then by bus through the occupied city of Armyansk in Crimea to the railway station in Dzhankoy. On the same day, the children were taken by train to the Krasnodar Territory of the Russian Federation to the city of Anapa.

The Prosecutor General's Office noted that out of the 15 children in the institution, 10 were deprived of parental care, 2 were orphans, 2 were children who were placed in the institution due to difficult life circumstances, and one child who was adopted by US citizens at the time of deportation, but was not picked up in time.

Thus, the pseudo-officials acted in pursuance of the criminal plan of the political and military leadership of the Russian Federation to forcibly transfer Ukrainian children and deport them to the Russian Federation for further adoption or placement under the care of Russian citizens, their Russification and destruction of Ukrainian identity.

The pre-trial investigation is ongoing. It is being conducted by the SBU.