Russia is committing all possible international crimes against Children of Ukraine – human rights defenders

Every day Russia kills and cripples Ukrainian children; destroys hospitals and schools, takes away children’s right to health care and education; deports them to the territories of Russia and often gives no possibility to enter territories controlled by Ukraine. Russia also tries to exterminate Ukrainian identity of the kids who stay in occupation or are deported, as well as conduct mass militarization campaigns of minors. The Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine has already started more than a thousand criminal proceedings with regard to crimes against children. 

These crimes and their legal qualifications were explained by human rights defenders during a press conference on the International Children’s Day.

“United Nations Security Council Resolution 1261 identifies six serious violations against children during armed conflicts: 1) the recruitment and use of children; 2) murder and mutilation of children; 3) rape and other forms of sexual violence against children; 4) attacks on schools, hospitals and protected persons associated with them; 5) abduction of children; 6) refusal of access to humanitarian aid, – said Inna Zavorotko, a graduate student of the National University of “Kyiv-Mohyla Academy”, an expert at the Foundation for Support of Fundamental Research. – All of those are now cynically committed by Russia against Ukrainian children. All of those are international crimes which have no statute of limitations, and depending on the circumstances of each crime, must be qualified as genocide, war crimes or crimes against humanity.”

According to UNICEF, 4.8 million children have already left their homes due to the war. About 2 million of them moved abroad, and 2.8 million are internally displaced. More than 232,000 children have been taken to Russia.

“Russia has committed the most serious crime against humanity – it has deprived all Ukrainian children of childhood. More than 250 children were killed during the full-scale aggression, more than 446 suffered injuries of varying degrees of severity. Millions were forced to flee their homes, and hundreds of thousands were forcibly displaced to Russia. During the three months of the war, 180 educational institutions were completely destroyed, and 1,909 ones were damaged. Children are basically deprived of the right to development and to have a future. Tens of thousands of children are under occupation and we have limited information about their well-being,” said Andriy Chernousov, a leading expert at the Kharkiv Institute for Social Research (KhISR).

Moreover, according to the report of the KhISD and the Voices of Children Foundation on Russia’s crimes against children, over the past month of the war, Russia has been deliberately creating humanitarian crises in the occupied territories.

“Newborns up to six months of age have almost nothing to eat. There are no mixtures, the mothers lost their milk due to stress. Baby food has a very short shelf life, such aid must be imported by volunteers on the constant basis. But the import of humanitarian aid is blocked, trucks are simply turned around at Russian checkpoints,” the researchers said in the report.

Russia also recruits children in war and its own propaganda, which is completely illegal. According to the KhISD and the Voices of Children Foundation, as of 2021, 29,000 children joined the ranks of the Russian “children’s and youth military-patriotic” organization “Yunarmiya” in Crimea alone, that is, every tenth student of the peninsula. By the end of 2021 on the territory of the so-called “L-DNR” in Yunarmiya there were about 7,500 children.

Children from 8-18 years old can get into the Yunarmiya camps on their parents request. Orphans and children deprived of parental care also get there. In addition to raising children in the direction of hate towards Ukraine, children get also prepared to serve in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the “Yunaermiya” camps. 

On the occupied territories, propaganda stories with the use of children are constantly being filmed. Thus, in the captured Melitopol, children were forced to wear St. George’s ribbons and recite poems about the war. In Mariupol, to create a visual illusion of care the Russian invadors opened a “children’s center”. They opened it in a room with no light and water, where food is cooked on fire in the yard. Children in the institution are planned to be taught according to the Russian-language textbook published by the self-proclaimed pseudo-state formation in the ORDO.

Valentyna Potapova, the head of the Center for Civic Education “Almenda”, notes that during the 8 years of occupation human rights defenders recorded the targeted militarization of minor children through formal and non-formal education in the occupied territory of Ukraine. And since February 24, 2022, in Crimea, they began to form a loyal attitude to the Russian-Ukrainian war through education in order to not only justify military aggression, but also to promote motivation to serve in the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

“After the occupation of the new territories, we heard from local “leaders” that they wanted to change the Ukrainian education system, which was “inspired by Bandera propaganda, where history was distorted, and which led to the destruction of Ukrainian statehood”. Therefore, we no longer have time for “concern”, our task is to jointly stop the total violation of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and International Humanitarian Law by the aggressor country. Our task is also to bring not only the military, but also the so-called “educators” to justice, – said Potapova.

Head of the Department for Protection of Children’s Rights and Combating Violence of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Yulia Usenko, noted that the Prosecutor’s Office has been recording crimes against children separately since the first days of the war.

“We already have 1,042 criminal proceedings regarding crimes against children. 551 of the proceedings are physical war crimes against children, i.e. murder, wounding, sexual violence, kidnapping. 491 of the proceedings relate to armed attacks and the destruction of civilian children’s infrastructure. We also reported 11 suspicions to Russian criminals,” Usenko said.

Ukrainian children and their families are under considerable stress due to the war and its harsh consequences. Olena Rozvadovska, Chairman of the Board of the Voices of Children Foundation, says that many families will need long-lasting psychological support:

“Very soon the time will come when we will work with difficult appeals of parents and their children with post-traumatic syndromes. And our work is aimed at developing free long-term support programs for such families. We already have a lot of requests, but there will be even more after the war. Therefore, the next 10 years will be key for Ukraine to implement working programs for psychological support for children and their parents. And realizing that the state can barely cope now with the economic consequences of the war, it is not worth expecting that some kind of such state program will quickly start to operate. That’s why we’re working on it now.“

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You are welcome to check the reports of the KhISR and the Voices of Children Foundation on Russia’s war crimes against children during the first, second and third months of the war. 

Watch the video from the International Children’s Day here. The event was held with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation.

Additional Information: Іryna Ivanchenko, ii@humanrights.org.ua, +38 099 772 56 67

“Ukraine. Five in the morning” Coalition has been working since the beginning of a large-scale Russian invasion to protect the victims of Russian armed aggression in Ukraine and bring the top leadership of the Russian Federation and the direct perpetrators of war crimes to justice. The coalition includes the ZMINA Human Rights Center, the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, the Ukrainian Legal Advisory Group, Regional Center for Human Rights, Media Initiative for Human Rights, Institute for Peace and Understanding, Almenda Center for Civic Education, Crimea-SOS, Crimean Human Rights Group, Vostok SOS, Center for Social Action, Advocacy Advisory Group, Kharkiv Institute of Social Research, DEJURE Foundation, Truth Hounds, Educational House of Human Rights in Chernihiv, Human Rights Center “Diya”, UMDPL Association, Ukraine without torture, Human Rights Platform, Association for the Development of Judicial Self-Government of Ukraine, Ukrainian Health Center (UHC), Expert Center for Human Rights, NGO “Gradual Group of Franks”, Association of Relatives of Political Prisoners of the Kremlin, Foundation for Support of Fundamental Research, FREE ZONE, experts Denys Rabomizo, Daria Sviridova, Gunduz Mammadov, Andriy Vishnevsky.