This thesis was circulated on social networks, in particular on telegram channels broadcasting pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Reports say that the so-called evacuation of Ukrainian children from the war zone and their further transfer to Russia allegedly cannot be considered a war crime.

This case was investigated by the fact-checkers of the StopFake project, who found out that such a thesis was not true. In fact, this is not an evacuation, but a deportation of the Ukrainian people. That is, Russia substitutes the concepts and calls the forced deportation “salvation”. People do not come back, they can go missing instead, in particular, children. At the same time, on March 15, 2023, UN international experts published a report that presents the results of the investigation of Russian aggression against Ukraine. The report contains war crimes committed by the Russian occupiers. A separate block of the UN report is devoted to the results of the investigation into the forced displacement and deportation of Ukrainian children by Russian occupiers. That is, this is indeed a war crime, which is why the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin. Outside of Russia, Putin should be arrested and brought to trial.

According to the Ukrainian authorities, children are taken out not only from Donetsk and Luhansk regions, but also from other occupied territories of Ukraine. In particular, children were taken out of Kherson. As of December 29, it is known that about 13,876 Ukrainian children were expelled by Russia. Ukraine regards such actions as the abduction of its citizens. Analysts of Detector Media conducted their own investigation on how Russia justifies deportation and other war crimes in Ukraine. You can read it here.