The spokesman for the US State Department, Ned Price, referring to the official report of the Conflict Observatory, said on February 14, 2023, that the Kremlin carried out the forced resettlement and deportation of thousands of children from the occupied Ukrainian territories deep into Russia, using 43 different facilities.
“The report describes in detail the systematic efforts of the Russian government to resettle thousands of Ukrainian children on a permanent basis to the territories under the control of the Russian government through a network of 43 camps and other facilities,” the representative of the US State Department noted.
Ned Price noted that in many cases the Russian Federation allegedly “temporarily” evacuated children from the territory of Ukraine under the guise of free summer camps, and then refused to return the children and cut off all contact with their families.
The US State Department emphasized that the illegal transfer and deportation of persons under protection is a serious violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Population. This is also a war crime.
In this regard, the United States called on Russia to immediately stop the forced deportations and return the children to their families and legal guardians.
See also: Russia is committing the entire spectrum of genocide against Ukrainian children
