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US enforces visa restrictions on Russian officials linked to Ukrainian child deportations

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US enforces visa restrictions on Russian officials linked to Ukrainian child deportations
Russian President Vladimir Putin (C) poses for a photo with children of Russian officers, who are taking part in the military invasion of Ukraine and participants of youth and student organizations, while visiting the Red Square on Nov. 4 2024, in Moscow, Russia. (Contributor/Getty Images)

The U.S. State Department has imposed visa restrictions on five Russian officials for their role in the forced deportation of Ukrainian children.

"Many of these children have had their identities changed and origins obscured, have been subjected to pro-Russia indoctrination and militarization, or have been adopted by Russian families," U.S. State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Dec. 4.

"We will continue to promote accountability for perpetrators and support efforts to return Ukraine’s children," he added.

Since February 2022, at least 20,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted from Russian-occupied territories and sent to other Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine or to Russia itself, according to a Ukrainian national database "Children of War." Less than 400 have been returned to Ukraine.

A Yale School of Public Health study published on Dec. 3 details Russia's systematic program of deporting and forcibly assimilating Ukrainian children.

Under orders from Russian President Vladimir Putin, children were transported via military aircraft in 2022, reclassified in Russian databases as native-born, and subjected to pro-Russian re-education before being adopted into Russian families. Ukrainian children had been transported to at least 21 regions throughout Russia.

The report identifies 314 children taken from occupied Luhansk and Donetsk regions, with over 60 granted Russian citizenship. Psychologists have been used to legitimize the program, falsely framing adoptions as medically necessary.

These findings, linking Putin and Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova directly to the program, will be submitted to the International Criminal Court as evidence of war crimes.

Ukraine names pro-Russian collaborators suspected of forcibly deporting Ukrainian children
One suspect was identified by the Kyiv Independent’s War Crimes Investigations Unit in the documentary “Uprooted.”
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Olena Goncharova

Head of North America desk

Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.

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