Europol has identified 45 Ukrainian children who were forcibly taken to Russia and Belarus and has established deportation routes. Investigators suspect that some of the abducted children may now be fighting in the war on the side of the Russian army.
Deutsche Welle writes about this.
Investigators from 18 European countries, led by Europol, have identified 45 children who were forcibly taken from Ukraine to Russia and Belarus and have found out how this happened. Experts have collected and analyzed data from open sources using advanced OSINT techniques.
As a result, it was possible to reconstruct the routes of the deportation of Ukrainian children to the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus, identify the civilians and military personnel involved, as well as the institutions where the children were ultimately placed (for example, orphanages). In addition, “Russian army units, in which the deportees may now be fighting as part of Russia's aggressive war against Ukraine,” the Europol press release states.
These reports may help to establish the current whereabouts of the abducted children, the report said. Europol has passed the information on to the Ukrainian authorities.
The EU police service stresses that the removal of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine may constitute a war crime. Europol will share the collected data with Ukrainian investigators, who have reported documenting over 19,500 cases of deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia and Belarus.