Vienna — An OSCE expert mission has documented the forced deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia in a report concluding that the practice is widespread, systematic and organised from the top of the Russian state — the same conclusion the International Criminal Court reached when it issued arrest warrants in March.
The third Moscow Mechanism report on Ukraine, presented to the Permanent Council on 4 May after 45 states invoked the mechanism on 30 March, was written by professors Veronika Bílková, Cecilie Hellestveit and Elīna Šteinerte. It verifies the transfer of ‘several thousands’ of children, the experts write, while noting that the true number is certainly higher — Ukraine speaks of figures well above ten thousand, and Russia has claimed to have ‘received’ far more.
What the report adds to the known record is the system behind the numbers. It describes ‘filtration points’ where civilians fleeing occupied areas are screened and sorted; orphanages and institutions emptied into Russia; children adopted by Russian families, given Russian citizenship and renamed; ‘re-education’ camps where teenagers are taught a curriculum written in Moscow. Many children, the experts found, have effectively lost their Ukrainian identity on paper — making their eventual return harder with every month that passes.
The deportations violate the Fourth Geneva Convention and, the mission concludes, may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. In March the ICC issued warrants for President Vladimir Putin and his children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova — who has publicly described her own ‘adoption’ of a boy from Mariupol.
Russia did not co-operate with the mission and denies deporting anyone, describing the transfers as humanitarian evacuations. The report addresses the claim directly: evacuation requires the consent of the child’s state and the intention to return; neither exists. Some children, it notes, have parents alive in Ukraine who do not know where they are.
The experts recommend a centralised international registry of deported children, unimpeded access for the ICRC and the UN, and the suspension of all Russian adoptions and citizenship procedures involving Ukrainian minors. Returns to date number in the hundreds. Against ‘several thousands’ — the report’s deliberately conservative floor — that is the measure of the road ahead.
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