The planes and equipment of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin were used in the program of removing children from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, depriving them of their Ukrainian identity and transferring them to Russian families.
This is stated in a report by the Yale University School of Public Health (USA).
Planes controlled by Putin participated in the deportation of children
A study supported by the US State Department has identified 314 Ukrainian children who were taken to Russia in the early months of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine as part of a systematic “Russification” program that was allegedly financed by the Kremlin.
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The new study is said to contain detailed information about the likely deportation program and the individuals involved. Including what its lead researcher says are new ties to Putin.
Yale Humanities Research Lab executive director Nathaniel Raymond said he plans to present the study's findings to the UN Security Council on Wednesday, December 4.
Raymond noted that the study contains evidence that supports additional ICC charges against Putin for forcibly moving people from one national and ethnic group to another.
He also noted that the report proves that the deportation of Ukrainian children is part of a systematic Kremlin program aimed at making them Russian citizens.
The report states that Ukrainian children taken to Russia were subjected to pro-government and militarized propaganda.
The report notes that Russia began removing Ukrainian children from temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories several days before the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The report also states that the Russian Aerospace Forces and aircraft under the direct control of Putin's office transported several groups of children from Ukraine on military transport aircraft flying the flag of the Russian Federation between May and October 2022 years.
According to the report, at least two groups of children flew on planes operated by the Presidential Property Management Department in Putin's administration in May and October 2022.
The children, who were delivered to the Chkalovsky military airfield near Moscow on September 16, 2022, were transported from the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions to the Russian city of Rostov, near the border with Ukraine.
A Tu-154M aircraft from the 223rd flight detachment of the Russian Defense Ministry was used to transport them. This is also supported by flight tracking data from Flightradar24.com.
The study is based on data from three Russian government adoption databases over a 20-month period, it is noted.
Of the 314 Ukrainian children identified, 166 were placed directly with Russian citizens, the report says. The remaining 148 were entered into Russian child placement databases, with about a third of them now in Russian families.
The remaining children were last known to be in Russian institutions.
Recall that on December 3, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to research by Yale University in the United States that identified hundreds of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia from the temporarily occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
— The report shows the world the lengths Russia is going to in order to erase Ukrainian identity. How systemic is its policy in this direction, — said the head of state.
And he also added that Ukraine is doing everything possible to return its children home, to their families in Ukraine.
