[8][9] The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for President of Russia Vladimir Putin[10] (who has explicitly supported the forced adoptions, including by enacting legislation to facilitate them)[1] and Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for their alleged involvement.

[20][21] On 30 May 2022, Vladimir Putin signed a decree that streamlined the process of adopting Ukrainian orphans or those without parental care and giving them Russian citizenship.

"[26] According to Ukrainska Pravda, Russia has taken 267 orphans from Mariupol to Rostov to be made Russian citizens, supervised by Maria Lvova-Belova.

[27] Sky News released CCTV footage dated June 2022 of Russian FSB officials entering an orphanage Kherson to search for orphans.

[28] In June 2022, Mikhail Mizintsev, head of the National Defense Management Center, claimed 1,936,911 Ukrainians had been deported to Russia, of whom 307,423 were children.

[30] Child abduction during "filtration" procedures was documented in a 10 November 2022 Amnesty International report entitled "Russia’s Unlawful Transfer And Abuse Of Civilians In Ukraine During 'Filtration'".

[31]In December 2022, a report published by the Eastern Human Rights Group and the Institute for Strategic Research and Security concluded that the deportations in Donbas were prepared by the Russian Federation under the guise of "evacuation" ahead of time.

[36] Later Rep Susan Wild proposed H.Res 149: "Condemning the illegal abduction and forcible transfer of children from Ukraine to the Russian Federation"; it earned 39 co-sponsors.

[46] Children detained in summer camps have testified to frequent punishment, bullying by peers, and pressure to sing the Russian anthem.

[31] Orphanages, group homes, and social service agencies are also allowed to file for adoption of abducted children, thus initiating their naturalisation.

[31] BBC news reported that Sergey Mironov, a Putin ally, had illegally adopted a toddler from a children's home in Ukraine.

[48] According to The New York Times, "Russian officials ... made clear that their goal is to replace any childhood attachment to home with a love for Russia".

[18] Some children have been placed in summer camps in Belarus that are run by Belarusian state-owned corporations by virtue of a decree issued by the Russo-Belarusian Union State.

[51] Children in such camps have been subjected to Russification, Russian state propaganda, and military education (including firearm training).

[41] Abducted children were paraded at a government pro-war rally marking the first anniversary of the invasion, where they were shown thanking Russian soldiers for "saving them".

[1][40] For the year of 2024, according to an investigation published in February 2024 by a coalition of journals including VSquare, Delfi, Expressen and Paper Trail Media, Lvova-Belova was scheduled to be paid from the Russian Federation budget the equivalent of €420,000 "for the removal of children from the Special Military Occupation Zone".

[56] According to international humanitarian law, children in war zones should be evacuated to neutral third countries whenever possible; Belarus lent its territory to be used as a staging ground for the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

[58][59] Belarusian president Lukashenko has dismissed concerns regarding the transfers, suggesting that Ukrainian children were instead being trafficked to Western countries for organ harvesting.

[67] ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan said, "We must ensure that those responsible for alleged crimes are held accountable and that children are returned to their families and communities.

[43] On 17 June 2023, Vladimir Putin rejected the request of a peace delegation from Africa to return the children back home, saying that "We moved them out of the conflict zone, saving their lives and health.

In a statement: "The most serious international crimes against children committed by Russian high-ranking officials and servicemen in Ukraine will be investigated, and the perpetrators will be prosecuted.

"[22] By 31 May 2023, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Ukrainian Service reported that Zelenskiy said 371 deported Ukraine children have been returned by Russia.

[24] Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, announced on 15 June 2022 that her agency had started an investigation into allegations of children forcibly deported from Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

[74] On 15 March 2023, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) released a report declaring these forced transfers of children are illegal and a war crime.

In none of the situations which the Commission has examined, transfers of children appear to have satisfied the requirements set forth by international humanitarian law.

The Commission has concluded that the situations it has examined concerning the transfer and deportation of children, within Ukraine and to the Russian Federation respectively, violate international humanitarian law, and amount to a war crime.

[77]Russia's kidnapping and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to Russify them has sometimes been mentioned as meeting the requirements of the Genocide Convention.

"[78] Professor in Law Yulia Ioffe wrote that the child abductions satisfy the prima facie elements of the crime of genocide.

[79] Lily Muelrath of the University of Wisconsin Law School agreed with such classification,[80] as did Azeem Ibrahim, Research Professor at the Strategic Studies Institute.

[85] In April 2023, the Council of Europe deemed the forced transfers of children as constituting an act of genocide in with an overwhelming majority of 87 in favour of the resolution to 1 against and 1 abstaining.