“My organization has documented 165 re-education camps where Ukrainian children are militarized and Russified. These camps exist in the occupied territories, Russia, Belarus and North Korea,” Rashevskaya said.
During her speech, the human rights activist showed photos of children, including 12-year-old Mikhail from the occupied part of the Donetsk region and 16-year-old Lisa from occupied Simferopol. According to her, the occupiers sent these children to the Songdowon camp in North Korea, 9 thousand km from their home.
“In this camp, children were taught to destroy the Japanese military and were introduced to the Korean veterans who attacked the American ship Pueblo in 1968, killing and wounding nine American soldiers,” the expert noted.
She emphasized that the Russian Federation presents the removal of Ukrainian children, in particular, as an evacuation. At the same time, Rashevskaya drew attention to the fact that international humanitarian law clearly regulates the evacuation of children from combat zones and requires the occupying country to take all possible measures to reunite families. The Russian Federation must also submit a list of evacuated children to the International Committee of the Red Cross. If evacuation is involved, Russia should regularly evaluate the grounds for keeping children and immediately return them as soon as the need no longer exists. However, the Russian Federation has not fulfilled any of these obligations, Rashevskaya emphasized.
Context
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia has deported or forcibly relocated more than 19,000 Ukrainian minors, according to the Ukrainian National Information Bureau on Prisoners of War, Deportees and Missing Persons.
On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the illegitimate Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian children's ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children.
On April 27, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution calling the deportation of Ukrainian children genocide.
The Russian Federation has kidnapped more than 20 thousand Ukrainian children, another 1.5 million may be deported, Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmitry Lubinets said in October 2024.
At a meeting of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children in New York, Zelensky said that as of September 23, 2025 Ukraine was able to return 1,625 childrenwho were kidnapped by Russia. The First Lady of Ukraine Elena Zelenskaya said that in order to return to Ukraine all the children abducted by the aggressor country Russia, at the current rate of return it will take 50 years.
On December 3, the UN General Assembly adopted the resolution “Return of Ukrainian children.” The resolution was supported by 91 countries, 57 – abstained. 12 countries voted against the document: the Russian Federation, Belarus, Iran, Nicaragua, Niger, Cuba, Eritrea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Sudan and the DPRK.
