A commander of the Russian 205th Motor Rifle Brigade is facing war crimes charges after orchestrating the forced removals of Ukrainian children into Russian territory.
The Security Service of Ukraine and the Office of the Prosecutor General gathered evidence against an alleged Russian serviceman who was involved in the deportation of Ukrainians children from the Mykolaiv Oblast under the occupation.
According to the SBU the suspect was identified as Dzhabrail Yousupov (call sign Gabriel), a section leader of Russia‘s 205th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade.
Ukraine’s National Information Bureau reported that by early 2024, more than 19,500 children had been verified as being deported to Russia. The actual number of deportations could be much higher, as many cases in occupied territory remain undocumented. The International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Children’s Rights Commissar Maria Lvova Belova for charges of unlawful deportation children which constitutes a crime of war.
Investigators claim that in July 2022, Yusupov was accompanied by 20 armed soldiers and forced 15 children to be removed from the Novopetrivska Special School.
The Prosecutor’s General’s Office reports that the group consisted of eleven boys and four girl aged 8 to 17 years old.
The prosecution reports that 12 children with special circumstances were deported, as were two others who were in the facility because of difficult life circumstances. A girl who was adopted by US citizens, but who could not be evacuated prior to the full-scale invasion, was also included.
According to the investigation the children were transported first to the occupied Crimea, then “under convoy”, to Anapa, in Russia’s Krasnodar oblast.
The deportees stayed in a local resort for almost a whole month.
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