Ukraine's Prosecutor General filed charges against a serviceman of the Russian Armed Forces who organised and personally participated in the unlawful transfer to Russia of 15 Ukrainian children.
According to official documents seen by Euronews, the case concerns events in the village of Novopetrivka in the Kherson region during Russia's occupation between March and November 2022.
The children were in the care of the local school's director, who, together with her husband, tried to "ensure their safety and proper living conditions."
Ten of the children lived with no parental care, three were orphans and two others were living in what was only described as difficult circumstances.
The accused Russian soldier together with other servicemen, arrived at the school threatening people with weapons, according to the documents seen by Euronews.
The director was interrogated, and in order to prevent any departure, three armed soldiers were left at the school.
Ukraine's Prosecutor General says that the next day, the accused Russian serviceman personally organised the forcible removal of the children.
Escorted by around 20 armed servicemen, the children, as well as the school director and her husband, were transported to the settlement of Stepanivka, deeper inside Kherson.
They were held there for about three months.
Forceful transfer to Russia
On 19 October 2022, shortly before Ukrainian forces liberated part of the Kherson region, the Ukrainian children were moved even further away.
First, they were taken by boat across the Dnipro River to Oleshky, a town which still remains occupied, on the left bank of Kherson region.
From there they were taken by bus to Armyansk in northern Crimea and then by train from Dzhankoi, Crimea to Anapa in Russia's Krasnodar Krai.
This is where the children were placed in a child care institution.
According to court papers, the children were forced to sing the Russian national anthem, participate in propaganda events and were forbidden from speaking Ukrainian.
"All of this was accompanied by constant psychological pressure," the documents said.
The investigation established that there were no grounds for the so-called evacuation. The school had food supplies, medicines and shelter and there were no active hostilities nearby.
Maksym Maksymov, head of projects at Bring Kids Back Ukraine told Euronews the case highlights how Russia is systematically carrying out the forced deportation of Ukrainian children.
"There was no justification for their transfer from Novopetrivka to Russia. The children were not in danger, they had shelter, food, and care. What happened instead was a deliberate operation, with a clear chain of actions from surveillance and control to forced transfer and deportation, alongside efforts to erase their identity," he said.
Euronews has previously reported cases of Ukrainian children who endured abuse, beatings, confinement in basements and threats of being sent to psychiatric hospitals for disobedience.
Who is charged?
According to the court case, the organiser of the crime has been identified and is charged with violating the laws and customs of war, committed by a group of persons in prior conspiracy as per the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Commenting on the case, Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Lohachov said that this is one of the documented episodes of the systematic practice of unlawfully transferring and deporting Ukrainian children from temporarily occupied territories.
"We are talking not only about 15 children from one specific locality. According to the information currently available, data on more than 19,000 children are being verified and this figure is not final," Lohachov said.
According to him, this criminal proceeding has established the full chain of actions: from controlling the children under occupation to their forced removal, further transfer through occupied territories, and deportation to the Russian Federation.
According to Ukraine's Prosecutor General, these were "organised actions by servicemen of the aggressor state, carried out with the use of weapons, coercion, and full control over the children."
"Prosecutors are documenting every such case and building the evidence base both for national courts and for international institutions."
The accused face between eight and 12 years in prison.
The pre-trial investigation was conducted by investigators of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
Maksymov told Euronews what is important about this case is that it allows Ukraine "to identify not just the crime, but the individual responsible for organising and carrying it out."
"That is how accountability is built and every person involved must face justice."
Efforts to bring abduected children back to Ukraine
All 15 children in this case were successfully returned to Ukraine but tens of thousands remain in Russia.
To date, Ukraine has managed to bring back around 2,000 children of the at least 20,000 forcefully deported by Russia.
For Ukraine and the President of Ukraine's Bring Kids Back UA initiative it can take years to return one child from Russia after abduction, from the beginning of the identification until the return happens.
Almost every return is mediated by a third state, notably Qatar, South Africa and the Vatican.
On Thursday the White House announced that US First Lady Melania Trump has for the fourth time helped secure the return of abducted Ukrainian children to their families.
Maksymov told Euronews as with the returns, Kyiv is also seeking international support in its investigations.
"Ukraine is working with international partners to bring every deported child home and to document these crimes for both national and international justice. The scale of these violations goes far beyond a single case, which is why sustained cooperation is essential," he said.
In March, the United Nations said that the deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia constitutes a crime against humanity and a war crime.
A new report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said Russian authorities "at the highest level" have deported "thousands" of children from occupied areas of Ukraine.
Vladimir Putin's "direct involvement" has been "visible form the outset," it adds.
Ukraine says almost 20,000 children have been illegally sent to Russia.
Yale's Humanitarian Research Lab placed the number of deported Ukrainian children closer to 35,000 while Moscow claimed the number could reach as high as 700,000.
The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank insists that the true number of deported children is almost impossible to verify.
