Russia has relocated thousands of Ukrainian children - at least 6,000 - to areas under its control in Ukraine as well as to its own territory, says a report on Tuesday by the Conflict Observatory, an independent research group funded by the Department of American state.
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“
The fact that these are transfers and displacements under the constraint of child is inconceivable from any point of view
”, affirms the Conflict Observatory in this report written by the laboratory in humanitarian research of Yale University in UNITED STATES.
"Clear Violation"
He calls on the Russian authorities "
to immediately stop
" these relocations and to "
bring the children back to their families
".
This is a "
clear violation
" of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the treatment of civilians in time of war, said one of the researchers, Nathaniel Raymond.
These activities "
could in some cases constitute war crimes or crimes against humanity
", he told reporters.
The Observatory, which cites satellite images or testimonies, still calls on Moscow to provide registers of these transferred children and to allow “
access to independent observers
”.
It identifies 43 establishments where Ukrainian children have been relocated, sometimes thousands of kilometers from their homes.
The report, which underlines that this policy has been approved at the highest level of the Russian government, denounces "
the systematic effort to prevent contact between children and their relatives in Ukraine, as well as their return, and to re-educate them so that 'they are becoming pro-Russian
'.
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These children are also offered for adoption in Russia.
Ukraine also accuses Russian forces of having kidnapped and taken to territories controlled by Moscow thousands of children, including orphans.
This Observatory had already denounced the forced relocation of Ukrainians in the eastern areas of the country controlled by Russia and the atrocities committed by Russian forces since the start of the invasion on February 24.