Russia is attempting to leverage the Ukrainian children it has illegally deported in ongoing negotiations with Ukraine, thereby contradicting recent Russian efforts to deny and downplay the scale of its deportation campaign and confirming that Russia has indeed stolen Ukrainian children in clear violation of international law. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated on June 16 during a press conference with Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen that Russian officials proposed exchanging deported Ukrainian children for Russian prisoners of war (POWs). Zelensky emphasized that Ukraine will not exchange children for Russian combatants, condemned the proposal as “beyond international law,” and called for Russia to return the children unilaterally, without exchanging them. The Russian suggestion that children be treated as combatants runs contrary to international law, which grants children special protected status in times of war. The Russian proposal additionally acknowledges that Russia has deported Ukrainian children, despite recent Russian attempts to either deny or greatly downplay the scale of the deportations. ISW continues to assess that there can be no just peace in Ukraine until Russia has returned all of the children it has deported. Russia cannot use children as bargaining chips and must ensure their return unilaterally and unconditionally, not in exchange for anything.
Key Takeaways:
- Russia is attempting to leverage the Ukrainian children it has illegally deported in ongoing negotiations with Ukraine, thereby contradicting recent Russian efforts to deny and downplay the scale of its deportation campaign and confirming that Russia has indeed stolen Ukrainian children in clear violation of international law.
- Russian occupation officials used the circumstances of Russia Day festivities to forcibly passportize Ukrainian children.
- The Republic of Kalmykia is facilitating the deportation of Ukrainian children via its patronage ties with a local Luhansk Oblast occupation administration.
- Russia continues to deport Ukrainian children to Russia for military-patriotic training and ideological indoctrination through the “Time of Young Heroes” program.
- Zaporizhia Oblast occupation head Yevgeny Balitsky credited Kremlin-appointed Russian Commissioner on Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova and the “Country for Children” charitable foundation for the recent deportation of 100 children from occupied Zaporizhia Oblast.
- Russian occupation authorities are suppressing religious freedom in occupied Crimea by prosecuting religious minority groups as “extremists” and by appropriating worship sites for the benefit of the occupation administration.
- Ukrainian partisan groups conducted attacks on Russian military personnel and assets in occupied Ukraine on June 11 and 12.
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[ISW] 이란 업데이트 특별 보고서, 2025년 6월 17일, 모닝 에디션
[ISW] 이란 업데이트 특별 보고서, 2025년 6월 16일, 저녁 에디션