UN condemns unimaginable suffering of Ukrainian children at hands of Russia

By Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA (Reuters) - Russia inflicted unimaginable suffering on millions of Ukrainian children and violated their rights since its full scale invasion of Ukraine begun in 2022, a new report by the United Nations Human Rights Office said on Friday.

"Their rights have been undermined in every aspect of life, leaving deep scars, both physical and psychosocial," said UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk.

The Russian Mission in Geneva did not respond to a request for comment when contacted by Reuters.

"In the four regions of Ukraine that were illegally annexed by the Russian Federation in 2022, children have been particularly affected by violations of international human rights law...including summary executions, arbitrary detention, conflict-related sexual violence, torture and ill-treatment", the report said.

Five boys and two girls were summarily executed in 2022 and 2023, with the report noting that the wilful killing of civilians was a war crime and a grave breach of the Geneva Conventions.

Some children had to take part in military-patriotic training, including singing the Russian anthem, and to follow the Russian school curriculum - in violation of international humanitarian law.

CHILD DEPORTATION AND TRANSFER

The transfer of at least 200 children within Russian occupied territory and to Russia between February 2022 and December 2024 may amount to war crimes, the report stated.

Previously Moscow said it had been protecting vulnerable children from a war zone.

Ukraine has called the abductions of tens of thousands of its children taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the consent of family or guardians a war crime that meets the U.N. treaty definition of genocide.

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued warrants for the arrest of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his children's rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova related to the abduction of Ukrainian children. Russia denounced the warrants as "outrageous and unacceptable."

Russia failed to provide detailed information about the children to the Central Tracing Agency, thwarting families attempts to find them, the report said.

Some 50,000 people were reported missing in the war between Ukraine and Russia over the last year, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross in February.

More than 600 children were killed between 24 February 2022 and 31 December 2024 in Ukraine, including occupied territories, the UN Human Rights Office verified. At least 737,000 children had been internally displaced and a further 1.7 million were refugees.

(Reporting by Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)