Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the country has evidence that Russia has abducted children from the country and is training them to fight in the war.
Speaking to CBS News, Zelensky said he has evidence to sustain the allegations, which could amount to a war crime under the International Criminal Court. He did not provide it in the interview nor detailed what it is.
Zelensky went on to say Moscow "taught these children to hate their native country, to hate native people." "And Ukrainians, can you imagine, such young Ukrainians, young boys, come to the battlefield and kill Ukrainians," he added.
The Ukrainian president also told the outlet that Moscow has been treating abducted children largely as combatants, offering to trade them for soldiers captured by Kyiv.
Russia has framed the taking of Ukrainian children as caring for war orphans. CBS News detailed that Moscow has broadcasted images of President Vladimir Putin with some of the abducted children.
The International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Putin over the "unlawful deportation of population" in 2023.
In a March report, the UN's Independent International Commission of Inquiry said Russian authorities "committed the crimes against humanity of deportation and forcible transfer of children, and of their enforced disappearance."
The document detailed that it has so far verified the transfer of more than 1,200 to Russia from five regions in Ukraine. It added that four years after the war began, 80% of the abducted children have not returned to Ukraine.
Erik Møse, Chair of the Commission said that the "deportation and forcible transfer of children is a grave violation of international law."
The report also claimed that "Russian authorities have systematically failed to disclose the whereabouts of the children to parents or legal guardians and have kept children in a coercive environment making their return to families almost impossible."
"Instead of establishing a system facilitating the return of children, Russian authorities placed them under long-term arrangements with families or institutions in 21 regions of the Russian Federation and in the occupied territories. They systematically granted Russian citizenship to the children whom they deported or transferred and their profiles were also placed on adoption databases," it added, noting that families and children have had to locate each other by themselves.
"Four years on, most of the families are still looking for their children, resulting in lengthy separations, distress and suffering. This amounts to the war crime of unjustifiable delay in the repatriation of civilians," the document adds.
