6,000 Ukrainian Children Sent to Russian Camps To Undergo Military-Related Education’ In Possible War Crime

 Russia has held at least 6,000 children from Ukraine in camps aimed at re-education in what could constitute a war crime, a US study has found. Since the start of the war nearly a year ago, children as young as four months have been taken to 43 camps across Russia, including in Moscow-annexed Crimea and Siberia, for ‘pro-Russia patriotic and military-related education’.

Nathaniel Raymond, a Yale researcher at the Humanitarian Research Lab – funded by the US State Department – said that Russia was in ‘clear violation’ of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the treatment of civilians during war. He called his team’s report a ‘gigantic amber alert’, referring to US public notices of child abductions. The activity ‘in some cases may constitute a war crime and a crime against humanity’, he told reporters.

Russia has tried to cast the relocation of the children as saving orphans or bringing them to camps for medical care. Some parents were pressured into give consent to send their children away, the report said.  The report called for a neutral body to be granted access to the camps and for Russia immediately to stop adoptions of Ukrainian children.

Ukraine’s government recently said that more than 14,700 children have been deported to Russia where some have been sexually exploited. The study said that Putin aides have been closely involved in the operation, including Maria Lvova-Belova, the presidential commissioner for children’s rights. It quoted her as saying that 350 children have been adopted by Russian families and that more than 1,000 were awaiting adoption.

The US report, which relied on satellite imagery and public accounts, said that at least 6,000 children have been sent to camps but that the number is ‘likely significantly higher’. It said that Russian authorities have sought to provide a pro-Moscow viewpoint to children through school curricula as well as through field trips to patriotic sites and talks from veterans.

Children have also been given firearms training, although Mr Raymond said there was no evidence they were being sent to fight. It has been nearly a year since Russia invaded Ukraine, with President Vladimir Putin denying the historical legitimacy of the neighbouring country and in September formally declaring four regions to be part of Russia.

Source: dailymail.co.uk

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