Possible war crime as Russia holds Ukrainian children

Russia has held at least 6000 children from Ukraine in camps aimed at re-education in what could constitute a war crime, a US study said overnight on Tuesday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova in March 2022. Picture: AFP

Russia has held at least 6000 children from Ukraine in camps aimed at re-education in what could constitute a war crime, a US study said overnight on Tuesday.

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,” said the report by the Yale ­Humanitarian Research Lab that was funded by the US State ­Department.

Yale researcher Nathaniel Raymond said Russia was in “clear violation” of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the treatment of civilians during war and called the report a “gigantic Amber alert”, referring to US public notices of child abductions.

The Russian activity “in some cases may constitute a war crime and a crime against humanity,” he 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 had been deported to Russia where some had been sexually exploited.

The US report, which relied on satellite imagery and public ­accounts, said that at least 6000 children had been sent to camps but that the number was “likely significantly higher”.

Russia has cast the effort as saving orphans or bringing children for medical care. Some parents were pressured to give consent to send away their children, sometimes with hopes they would return, the report said.

It said Russian authorities had sought to provide a pro-Moscow viewpoint to children through school curriculums as well as through field trips to patriotic sites and talks from veterans.

Children had also been given training in firearms, although Raymond said there was no evidence they were being sent back to fight.

The study said that aides of President Vladimir Putin had been closely involved in the operation, especially Maria Lvova-­Belova, the presidential commissioner for children’s rights. It quoted her as saying that 350 children had been adopted by Russian families and that more than 1000 were awaiting adoption.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, the US Army announced it had awarded $US522m ($748m) in orders to two companies to manufacture 155mm artillery ammunition for Ukraine.

The orders to Northrop Grumman Systems Corp and Global Military Products came amid worries that Ukraine was fast depleting the stockpiles of ­artillery shells from the US and other allies.

Deliveries of the new ammunition are scheduled to begin in March, about the same time the first shipment of ammunition arrives after a deal struck last month between Australia and France.

Ukraine and Russia have fired huge amounts of artillery munitions at each other since the Russian invasion began almost a year ago.

In November a US official said Russian forces were firing about 20,000 artillery rounds a day. Ukraine’s rate was between 4000 and 7000 rounds a day – faster than allied Western manufacturers can produce to keep pace.

The rates have plunged since then, as the winter set in and both sides face shortages and conserve ammunition.

But more artillery will be ­urgently needed within the next few days as Russia ramps up preparations for its spring offensive.

Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, said Ukraine was “becoming more active, pulling up more and more new reserves”.

“Every day, between 300 and 500 new fighters approach Bakhmut from all directions,” he said of the city in eastern Ukraine and scene of the longest-running battle since Moscow’s offensive.

“We will not be celebrating in the near future.

“Bakhmut will not be taken ­tomorrow, because there is heavy resistance and grinding, the meat grinder is working.”

The Kremlin-appointed leader of the separatist Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, said on Tuesday that there were no signs that Ukraine will cede the city, which President Volodymyr Zelensky has described as a “fortress”.

AFP