47. Forced deportation of children to the Russian Federation
Mariupol (Donetsk)
Featured in Vanity Fair via The Reckoning Project:
“‘Dad, You Have to Come—Or We Will Be Adopted!’: One Ukrainian Family’s Harrowing Wartime Saga”
LOCATION: Mariupol (Donetsk)
DATE: April – June 2022
NUMBER OF WITNESSES: 3
SUMMARY: Russian forces forcibly evacuated a father and his three young children from the bunker of a Mariupol hospital on April 7, 2022. They were sent to a checkpoint, where the Witness was detained due to his prior military service and separated from his children. He was imprisoned for 45 days in Olenivka, where he was interrogated and kept in overcrowded conditions. Meanwhile, his children were sent to Russia where they were pressured by social services to consent to entering foster care. The father, however, managed to retrieve them from the Russian facility near Moscow and bring them to safety abroad.
WITNESSES
The Witnesses of the incident were a male civilian, his young son, and his elementary-school-age daughter. At the time of the invasion, he lived in Mariupol with his children.
VICTIMS
The Victims of the incident include the Witnesses mentioned above, as well as the youngest daughter who did not testify.
ALLEGED PERPETRATORS
as described by the Witness(es)
The perpetrators included members of the Russian military and internationally unrecognized “Donetsk People’s Republic” soldiers who varied in rank and all spoke Russian.