{"id":17862,"date":"2026-03-10T03:52:23","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T10:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=17862"},"modified":"2026-03-14T04:00:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T11:00:34","slug":"putins-child-snatching-is-crime-against-humanity-un-says-the-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/?p=17862","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;Putin\u2019s child snatching is crime against humanity, UN says&#8221;, The Times"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/planetearthfdn.org\/news\">Back to News<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Report from its independent international commission accuses Russia of having a co-ordinated state policy, with the active involvement of the president<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Liz Cookman<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tuesday March 10 2026, London<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/imageserver\/image\/%2F25a155bc-c1d0-48ff-b8cb-7fcc90e531e1.jpg?crop=5229%2C2941%2C0%2C272&amp;resize=360\" alt=\"Ukrainian orphanage children eating a meal at a camp in Russia.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Ukrainian children from an orphanage in the Donetsk region at a camp in Zolotaya Kosa, in the Rostov region, southwestern Russia, in 2022 AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Russia has committed a crime against humanity through its forcible transfers of thousands of Ukrainian children to territory under its control, a UN inquiry has found, with President Putin\u2019s involvement \u201cvisible from the outset\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The abductions of children \u2014 which some estimates place in the tens of thousands \u2014 are a co-ordinated state policy organised at the highest levels of government, the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ohchr.org\/en\/hr-bodies\/hrc\/iicihr-ukraine\/index\">&nbsp;Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine<\/a>&nbsp;said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a report released on Tuesday, the UN inquiry concluded that the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/world\/russia-ukraine-war\/article\/orphans-adoption-website-children-3bfnd2k5d\">scale and systematic nature of the acts<\/a>&nbsp;meant they amounted to crimes against humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2022&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/world\/russia-ukraine-war\/article\/the-ukrainian-children-waiting-for-parents-who-may-never-return-mwkw85cfg\"><strong>The Ukrainian children waiting for parents who may never return<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe evidence collected demonstrates that the authorities have acted pursuant to a policy conceived and executed at the&nbsp;highest level of the Russian Federation state apparatus,\u201d the commission said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a relatively forthright move for a UN body, the report singled out Russia\u2019s head of state. \u201cThe involvement of Vladimir Putin, the president of the Russian Federation, including through his direct authority over entities that have steered and executed this policy, has been visible from the outset,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It confirmed that at least 1,205 children have been transferred or deported to either Russia or the parts of Ukraine it occupies since the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/world\/russia-ukraine-war\/article\/russia-ukraine-war-maps-charts-data-four-years-r2090zk6t\">full-scale invasion four years ago<\/a>. The vast majority of the children, 80 per cent, have not been returned as Moscow has failed to establish a system to facilitate it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even in the days before the war, Russia was preparing to transfer children, the inquiry said. It suggests the large-scale relocations are not \u201cevacuations\u201d to protect the children from the risks of war, as Russia claims, but are premeditated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/imageserver\/image\/%2Fe6720a61-e721-405a-bcda-6fdede5b4147.jpg?crop=7148%2C4540%2C0%2C0&amp;resize=1290\" alt=\"Maria Lvova-Belova meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Maria Lvova\u2011Belova, Russia\u2019s children\u2019s rights commissioner, with Putin; she is the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, REUTERS<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Instead of returning the children, Russia has focused on their long-term placement with families or in institutions in at least 21 regions of the country. Some have been pushed into adoption or appeared in online adoption databases. Many have been given Russian citizenship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Representatives of the UN Inquiry also included testimonies from children who had been&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/world\/russia-ukraine-war\/article\/russia-sending-kidnapped-ukrainian-children-to-front-line-0jz8b2zch\">deported to Russia<\/a>. \u201cThey bring you without documents, then they give you Russian documents and they consider the children as theirs, as if they belong to them,\u201d one Ukrainian boy said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another child said staff at a school had warned pupils they should be ready for \u201cevacuation\u201d, but when one of the children said he would call his mother, they said: \u201cYes, you can call your mum, but, in any case, we will evacuate you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/imageserver\/image\/%2F16856038-b805-498c-90bd-309f69c4f7aa.jpg?crop=3310%2C1946%2C1031%2C1695&amp;resize=1290\" alt=\"Russian President Vladimir Putin in a suit and tie sitting at a large desk with a serious expression, with the Russian flag and national emblem behind him.\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>President Putin\u2019s involvement was \u201cvisible from the outset\u201d, the UN said. SPUTNIK\/GAVRIIL GRIGOROV\/REUTERS<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf you don\u2019t come with us, the Ukrainians will put you in a basement and torture you,\u201d staff added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>International humanitarian law, the report said, \u201cmandates that evacuations must be temporary and take place for reasons of compelling health, medical treatment, or safety\u201d.<br><br>The report also mentions&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/world\/russia-ukraine-war\/article\/foreign-fighters-international-legion-list-rg9fw6rd8\">foreign nationals recruited<\/a>, sometimes through deception, to fight for Russia. It identified people from 17 countries, including Iraq, Kazakhstan, Somalia and Turkey, who are usually assigned \u201cextremely dangerous duties\u201d and subjected to \u201cextreme violence\u201d by commanders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The findings regarding deported children echo a previous report by the commission that said the unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children is a war crime, as is the delay to their repatriation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A crime against humanity is defined by human rights groups and lawyers as a large-scale attack targeting civilians at a time of peace or war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The International Criminal Court had previously issued&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/world\/russia-ukraine-war\/article\/arrest-warrant-issued-for-putin-over-war-crimes-ndgvfh05s\">arrest warrants for Putin<\/a>&nbsp;and Maria Lvova\u2011Belova, Russia\u2019s children\u2019s rights commissioner, in 2023, accusing them of war crimes over the unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children. Lvova-Belova has openly said she adopted a 15\u2011year\u2011old boy who was taken from the city of Mariupol as Russia laid siege to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Yale School of Public Health\u2019s Humanitarian Research Lab has estimated that at least 35,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territories since February 2022. It has called it the largest missing persons case since the Second World War and has warned of coerced adoption, indoctrination and forced military training for Ukrainian teenagers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/imageserver\/image\/%2Fa4d8cbb2-92a3-4ca1-9acf-80b97cdd7967.jpg?crop=5104%2C3403%2C0%2C0&amp;resize=1290\" alt=\"Children from Donetsk orphanages eat a meal at a camp in Russia.\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>The return of Ukrainian children has been a central concern in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, AP<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last year it published data on a network of at least 210 facilities in Russia and Russian\u2011occupied territory where Ukrainian children have been subjected to re\u2011education programmes designed to promote pro\u2011Russian narratives and, in many cases, training with weapons and drones.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some returned Ukrainian children have reported being served draft papers by the Russian military.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More conservative estimates of the number of stolen children put the figure closer to a few thousand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Ukrainian non-governmental organisation (NGO) Save Ukraine has warned that adoption databases include children who grew up in Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk, areas occupied by Russia-aligned forces since 2014. It says children have been systematically deported and transferred to Russian families for over a decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u2022&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/as%20a%20mother%20and%20war%20reporter,%20russia%e2%80%99s%20theft%20of%20children%20is%20hard%20to%20believe\"><strong>Christina Lamb: As a mother and war reporter, Russia\u2019s theft of children is hard to believe<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The return of Ukrainian children has been a central concern in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, with Kyiv pressing Moscow to facilitate repatriation as part of broader negotiations over occupied territories and prisoner exchanges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With Russian authorities failing to inform parents or legal guardians of the whereabouts of children, families have often had to carry out their own efforts to locate one another. Mothers often have to make daring journeys into Russia to retrieve their children amid the continuing conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/imageserver\/image\/%2F3bfc0bb3-f304-409c-b82a-59d2f792236e.jpg?crop=3760%2C2320%2C0%2C0&amp;resize=1290\" alt=\"Maria Lvova-Belova smiles while interacting with children.\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Lvova-Belova, seen here in Chechnya, is said to have supervised the mass kidnapping of orphaned children from Mariupol and other Ukrainian places, PRESS SERVICE OF THE PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSIONER FOR CHILDREN\u2019S RIGHTS\/ALAMY<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some families remain separated years after the children were taken and NGOs emphasise that long-term psychological harm could leave them vulnerable well beyond the conflict.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In December, the UN general assembly demanded by a wide margin that the Kremlin immediately and unconditionally return all Ukrainian children. Russia rejected the resolution as politically motivated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p id=\"last-paragraph\">The commission was established by the UN Human Rights Council after Putin launched the full-scale invasion in 2022.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/world\">World<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetimes.com\/world\/russia-ukraine-war\">Russia-Ukraine war<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back to News Report from its independent international commission accuses Russia of having a co-ordinated state policy, with the active involvement of the president Liz Cookman Tuesday March 10 2026, London Russia has committed a crime against humanity through its forcible transfers of thousands of Ukrainian children to territory under its control, a UN inquiry [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1001004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17862"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1001004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17862"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17867,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17862\/revisions\/17867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldcampaign.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}