Geneva: A new report by the United Nations Human Rights Office has accused Russia of inflicting “unimaginable suffering” on millions of Ukrainian children and violating their rights since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.
“Their rights have been undermined in every aspect of life, leaving deep scars, both physical and psychosocial,” said UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk.
According to the report, children in the four Ukrainian regions illegally annexed by Russia in 2022 have been particularly vulnerable to severe violations of international human rights law. These include summary executions, arbitrary detention, conflict-related sexual violence, torture, and ill-treatment.
The report highlighted that five boys and two girls were summarily executed between 2022 and 2023. It emphasized that the deliberate killing of civilians constitutes a war crime and a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions.
In Russian-occupied areas, some children were subjected to military-patriotic training, required to sing the Russian national anthem, and forced to follow the Russian school curriculum—acts that violate international humanitarian law.
The report also stated that at least 200 children were transferred within Russian-controlled territories and into Russia itself between February 2022 and December 2024, an act that may amount to war crimes.
Moscow has previously claimed that it was protecting vulnerable children by removing them from a conflict zone. However, Ukraine has condemned the forced abductions of tens of thousands of its children, arguing that their transfer to Russia or Russian-occupied territories without the consent of their families or guardians constitutes a war crime. Ukrainian officials further stated that these acts align with the UN treaty definition of genocide.
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In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, in connection with the abduction of Ukrainian children. Russia dismissed the warrants as “outrageous and unacceptable.”
The report accused Russia of failing to provide detailed information about the taken children to the Central Tracing Agency, obstructing families from locating their missing loved ones.
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According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, approximately 50,000 people have been reported missing due to the war over the past year.
The UN Human Rights Office verified that between February 24, 2022, and December 31, 2024, more than 600 children were killed in Ukraine, including in occupied territories. At least 737,000 children were internally displaced, while another 1.7 million were forced to flee as refugees.
