(Photo: Getty/iStock)
The World Council of Churches has expressed “grave concern” after a United Nations commission concluded that Russian authorities have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes by deporting and forcibly relocating Ukrainian children.
In a statement responding to the findings, WCC general secretary Rev Prof Dr Jerry Pillay said the report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine “confront[s] the conscience of the whole international community”.
He said the reported removal of children from Ukrainian territory under Russian occupation, and their permanent settlement in Russia, amounted to a profound moral outrage.
“These actions are a shocking violation of the God-given dignity of every child and of the sanctity of family bonds,” Prof Pillay wrote.
“The deliberate removal and relocation of children for political or ideological purposes is fundamentally incompatible with international law, morality and Christian values, which call us to protect the smallest and most vulnerable among us.
“Such actions deprive children of their families, language, culture, and homeland, inflicting deep psychological and spiritual harm,” he added.
The Commission’s latest report, submitted to the UN Human Rights Council, centres on its most serious finding: the deportation or transfer of Ukrainian children to the Russian Federation or to Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.
It said it had gathered “compelling evidence concerning the deportation and transfer of a total of 1,205 children from five oblasts in Ukraine”, leading it to conclude that “these acts amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes of deportation and forcible transfer of children”.
The report goes further, saying Russian authorities also committed “the crime against humanity … of enforced disappearance” in relation to children, as well as the war crime of “unjustifiable delay in their repatriation.”
According to the Commission, Russian authorities systematically withheld information about the children’s whereabouts from parents and legal guardians, while keeping them in “a coercive environment obstructing their return.”
Rather than creating a process to reunite children with their families, the report said officials pursued their “long-term placement with families or in institutions in the Russian Federation.”
It noted that all through 2022, Russian authorities said adoption was their favoured course of action.
The consequences have been devastating. In the cases examined by the Commission, 80% of the children had not been returned.
Parents and guardians in many cases still do not know where their children are, while those who have managed to secure returns have faced delays, bureaucratic obstacles and dangers.
This has that left many families still trying to find them years later.
One child who returned to Ukraine told investigators: “I was sad, I was scared. I worried that I would have to live in the Russian Federation.”
The Commission’s report reflects a wider investigation into abuses perpetrated since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
It said its work had been guided by “independence, impartiality, objectivity, integrity, as well as a victim-centred approach.”
The inquiry has interviewed 2,433 people and made 27 visits to Ukraine since its founding.
It said Ukraine had cooperated with its work, while Russia did not recognise the Commission and rejected 39 written requests for meetings, information and access.
Beyond the findings on children, the report documented a broad range of alleged violations by Russian authorities.
These included trials in Russian courts and in occupied parts of Ukraine that, the Commission said, stripped civilians and prisoners of war their right to basic fair trial guarantees.
It found evidence that accusations were supported by material fabricated or extracted under torture or ill-treatment, while courts ignored the presumption of innocence, the right to defence and other core protections.
The Commission stated that such proceedings amounted to serious violations of international humanitarian law and therefore constituted war crimes.
It also reported ongoing sexual violence in several occupied or contested regions, with victims ranging from children to adults, and said survivors had suffered deep physical and psychological trauma.
In another strand of the investigation, the Commission examined the recruitment of foreign nationals from 17 countries into the Russian armed forces.
Many, it said, had been deceived by pledges of civilian work or other financial opportunities, only to be coerced into signing Russian-language contracts they did not understand and sent into dangerous frontline roles.
The report also drew on interviews with 85 former Russian soldiers who had deserted.
Their testimony described beatings, shootings, mock executions, confinement in pits or cages, and other violent punishments used by commanders against subordinates.
The accounts, the Commission said, showed “a total disregard for human life and dignity” and suggested that violence inside the Russian armed forces was both “widespread and systematic.”
While most of the report’s strongest conclusions concerned Russian conduct, the Commission also raised concerns about Ukraine.
It said the country’s criminal offence of “collaborative activities” was drafted too broadly, creating legal uncertainty and risking the punishment of people who had carried out essential civilian services in occupied areas.
It also recorded alleged abuses linked to mobilisation for the Ukrainian armed forces, including irregular detention, lack of access to lawyers, rushed medical examinations and violence against conscientious objectors.
In its conclusions, the Commission said it remained deeply troubled by “the wide array of crimes and violations it has investigated, and at their effects on the victims and their families.”
It warned that the crimes committed against children in particular would have “irreversible consequences on their lives and their future”.
It also stressed the need for a victim-centred response, saying those affected had urgent needs including psychological care, housing, reintegration aid and medical treatment.
“Both judicial and non-judicial accountability are key to provide much needed relief,” it said.
The Commission said recommendations from its previous reports remained in force.
In this latest report, those recommendations included calls on Russia to stop prosecuting prisoners of war for lawful combat, end torture, uphold fair trial rights, prevent sexual violence, halt deceptive foreign recruitment and end internal military abuses.
Ukraine was urged to narrow its “collaborative activities” law, improve mobilisation procedures and ensure legal protections for those detained or objecting to service.
The international community, meanwhile, was asked to strengthen monitoring, expand humanitarian support for affected families and back survivor-centred programmes for victims returning from detention or displacement.
Prof Pillay said the WCC stood in “profound solidarity” with affected children and their families and called on the Russian authorities to provide “the transparency and accountability that a report of this seriousness demands, putting the best interests of each child first.”
