Russian occupation administrations in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories have been ordered to compile new lists of Ukrainian children without guardianship for potential deportation, Ukraine’s National Resistance Center said in its report on 27 November.
Kremlin-appointed children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova oversees the process.
Although the children have relatives in Ukraine-controlled territories, the Russian administrations are refusing to repatriate them and are instead fast-tracking adoption procedures in Russia.
“The aim is to assimilate Ukrainian children, effectively erasing an entire generation’s national identity,” the Center said.
Earlier, Lvova-Belova claimed Russia has “accepted” approximately 4.8 million Ukrainians, 700,000 of them children, and placed 380 Ukrainian orphans in foster care in Russia between April and October 2022.
In April 2023, PACE recognized the forced deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia as genocide.
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