The United Nations’ Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine recently delivered a significant finding: Russia’s systematic removal and Russification of Ukrainian children constitutes both a war crime and a crime against humanity.
Russia takes Ukrainian children from occupied territories, places them in Russian families, gives them Russian names, and, by presidential decree, grants them fast-tracked Russian citizenship.
More than 1,200 cases were verified by the commission, but the real number is likely much higher. Eighty per cent of the children remain in Russia, in many cases adopted into Russian families.
