Latest News

• May 17: Ukraine returned a 6 y.o. girl Anna-Maria who was deported to Russia. Her parents, who served in the military and defended Mariupol have just been released as POWs from Russia as well. The family is now reunited.
• May 16: Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets held a meeting with Anna Knutzen, Senior Coordinator of UNICEF in Europe and Central Asia, during which he focused on the issue of cooperation for the return of children deported by Russia to Ukraine.
• May 9: The OSCE published a report on Russia’s violation of the rights of Ukrainian children and their forced deportation. This is the first separate special international report on the problem of the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children to the Russian Federation.
• May 8: Russian forces are forcibly deporting civilians and workers of ZNPP out of the Zaporizhzhia Oblast city of Enerhodar, Ukraine’s General Staff said. This will leave the NPP without experts and critical workers, which may lead to a greater nuclear threat. 
• May 1: The Pope is ready to help return forcibly deported Ukrainian children from Russia.
• April 27: Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has signed a decree allowing the deportation of Ukrainians in occupied territories who refuse to take Russian citizenship, Russian state media reported on April 27.
• April 26: Ukraine returned 3 forcibly deported children back to home.

Advocacy advances

1. According to a report published by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) on May 4, mass deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to the occupied areas and Russia’s territory “may amount” to a crime against humanity.

https://www.osce.org/files/f/documents/7/7/542751.pdf

1. Ukraine 5AM Coalition calls on the President of Ukraine to initiate the process of ratification of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court before the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

https://zmina.ua/en/statements-en/ukraine-5am-coalition-it-is-time-to-ratify-rome-statute/

1. As a result of of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, a resolution was adopted recognizing that Russia’s deportation of Ukrainian children has evidence of genocide. This is the first recognition of this fact at the level of such a high international organization uniting the states of our continent.

https://www.president.gov.ua/en/news/prodovzhimo-pracyuvati-dlya-povernennya-vsih-deportovanih-uk-82525

1. Civil society representatives have compiled a set of measures to urge those in positions of authority to collaborate with international human rights organizations. We are advocating for these requests to be presented during the upcoming G7 Summit.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b19zGstBzcGECKtif_XeuiAbHt1iyjVnDK2VKpv9M-4/edit?usp=sharing

Articles we facilitated 

1. The Russian regions which have received the most Ukrainian deportees are Rostov, Voronezh, and Belgorod Oblasts, meaning the Russians are deporting Ukrainians mostly to regions bordering the country.

https://ukraineworld.org/articles/analysis/deported-russia

1. Lors de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, de nombreux enfants ont été enlevés par les nazis et placés dans les foyers de vie du Lebensborn. Depuis le début de la guerre en Ukraine, les forces russes ont organisé des déplacements de population et déporté des enfants.

https://atlantico.fr/article/decryptage/ukraine-le-lebensborn-poutinien-enfants-enlevements-deportation-population-familles-parents-jeunes-guerre-kiev-moscou-vladimir-poutine-volodymyr-zelensky-soldats-gabriel-robin

1. The Western world has left religious wars in the past, though Russia still keeps on trucking. In its war against Ukraine, Russia uses the Russian Orthodox Church as one of the key elements of propaganda. In fact, ROC justifies and supports invading independent countries, destroying cities, torturing people, and forcibly deporting them.

https://deportation.org.ua/the-role-of-the-russian-orthodox-church-in-the-russian-army-ideological-foundations-creation-of-a-military-chaplaincy-propaganda-of-the-war-as-a-struggle-for-true-orthodoxy/

Experts on the topic

If you want to receive any special comment on deportation or conduct an interview, these experts can answer your questions. For receiving their contacts, please, reach out to me.

• Ihor Kulyk, Director of the State Archive of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance. Expert on documents on Soviet deportations, archives on forced evictions and mass repressions of the Soviet period. 
• Anastasiia Marushevska, co-founder of PR Army and Where Are Our People.
• Kateryna Rashevska, lawyer at Regional Centre for Human Rights. Expert on forcible deportation of Ukrainian children, illegal adoption of Ukrainian children by Russians.
• Vira Yastrebova, director of the “Skhidna Pravozahysna grupa” (Eastern Human Rights Group). Expert on deportation of children, crimes against children (during deportation) – In the captured territories, the occupiers forcefully send Ukrainian children to donate blood for their soldiers; erase identity. 
• Onysiia Syniuk, international lawyer of the Center for Human Rights “ZMINA”. Areas of professional interest include international humanitarian and criminal law, the proper implementation of the standards of these fields in Ukraine. 
• Emmanuel Daoud, Lawyer at VIGO Law Firm (Paris). Can comment on legal information about qualifications of crimes: genocide and deportations.
• Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine which is directly responsible for bringing back deported Ukrainians.
• Vladyslav Havrylov, PhD in history, researcher of the history of Russian deportations.
• Serhii Hromenko, Ukrainian historian, publicist and public figure, candidate of historical sciences, expert of the Ukrainian Institute of the Future.

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