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• February 5: According to Ukrainian lawyer Kateryna Rashevska, the Russians took 50 eleventh-graders out of the occupied Luhansk region: 45 from Rubizhne and 5 from Lysychansk. In Kazan, in the “University” school of the Yelabuz Institute of the Kazan Federal University, 2 separate classes were created, where, according to a special program, Ukrainian children will first be prepared to take the unified state exam and then — to enter the university itself. They do not plan to return the children to their parents, instead, they issued Russian citizenship, which is a mandatory condition for obtaining a document on the completion of school education.
• February 3: Russia approved a program for the mass resettlement of citizens of the Russian Federation, Belarus, and Kazakhstan to the occupied territory of Zaporizhzhia. At the same time, Ukrainians who do not want to receive Russian passports are threatened with deportation, Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov said.
• February 2: Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mélanie Joly, announced the creation of a new international coalition for the return of Ukrainian children illegally deported by Russia.
• January 31: Ukraine is investigating 120,000 war crimes, Prosecutor General Kostin said at the international conference in Riga, which was dedicated to the return of deported children. Some crimes concern the forced deportation of Ukrainian children to the territories of Russia and Belarus.
• January 26: Viktor Filonov, a Russian soldier suspected in the Bucha massacre, illegally adopted a 7-year-old boy who was deported from Ukraine.
• January 25: The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has issued a call for the recognition of the deportation of Ukrainian children by Russia as genocide. In a resolution titled “Position of Ukrainian Children,” the PACE urges nations to notify Ukrainian authorities when Russian citizens illegally adopt or assume guardianship of Ukrainian children by crossing borders. Additionally, it advocates for the implementation and enforcement of sanctions to deter such actions in the future.

Advocacy advances

1. “Russia’s War on Children” conference was held from January 30 to February 1 in Riga, Latvia. The aim of the conference was to spotlight the abduction and forced deportation of Ukrainian children to the global community.
2. On February 2nd, the Georgetown University Collaborative on Global Children’s Issues, in collaboration with its partners, hosted a conference titled “The War Against Ukraine’s Children” in Washington.
3. Ukrainian Commissioner for Human Rights Dmytro Lubinets held more than 40 meetings with representatives of US government agencies, think tanks, and non-governmental organizations, and more than 10 public speeches.

Materials we facilitated

• An article about the forced deportation of Ukrainian Germans
  https://deportation.org.ua/deportation-of-ukrainian-germans-in-1944-1946/
• Our researcher Vladyslav Havrylov commented on the deportation of Ukraine’s children at the BBC World (UK office) broadcast
  https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w172z07f8ctgyrz
• An article about Ukrainian deported communities on the territory of Russia

https://kyivindependent.com/history-behind-russian-lands-recognized-by-zelensky-decree-as-historically-inhabited-by-ukrainians/?fbclid=IwAR2fPR_mCRMfSkqdplpKttbGQsxS_XhVElj48-y8lLc57IflCoNtNiyEXTQ

• An article about the history of Ukrainians celebrating Christmas in deportation
  https://espreso.tv/svyato-u-voroga-drugiy-rik-pospil-deportovani-ukrainski-diti-znakhodyatsya-u-rosii

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