Russia sends kidnapped Ukrainian children to camps in North Korea for "re-education"

Katerina Rashevskaya, an expert at the Regional Center for Human Rights, stated that camps are operating in the DPRK where kidnapped Ukrainian children from the TOT are brought. She stated this in the US Senate on December 3.

Rashevskaya noted that her organization has recorded 165 camps where Ukrainian children are Russified and militarized. These institutions are located in the temporarily occupied territories, in Russia, Belarus and North Korea.

During her speech, Rashevskaya showed a photo of 12-year-old Mikhail from part of the temporarily occupied Donetsk region and 16-year-old Lisa from occupied Simferopol. She noted that the Russian side sent them to the Songdowon camp in North Korea, which is located nine thousand kilometers from their homes. "In this camp, children are taught to destroy Japanese soldiers and are introduced to Korean veterans who attacked the American ship "Pueblo" in 1968, killing and wounding nine American soldiers," the human rights activist emphasized.

Russia calls the removal of Ukrainian children an “evacuation.” However, Rashevska recalled that international humanitarian law strictly regulates such actions.

The aggressor country, Russia, is obliged to make every effort to reunite children with their families, to transfer lists of evacuated children to the International Committee of the Red Cross, and to regularly check whether their support is still needed. When such a need disappears, the children must be returned immediately.

According to the human rights activist, Russia has not met any of these international requirements.

On November 13, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported that about 400 places where children abducted from Ukraine are being held have been found in Russia.

"We have returned more than 1,600 children. And according to our estimates, there are thousands of them there. It is true - about 19,500 abducted Ukrainian children are in Russia. We need to focus on how to find them. It is very difficult. We are cooperating with various intelligence services," said President Zelensky.

In June, a team of researchers from Yale University (USA) found that Russia may be holding about 35,000 Ukrainian children who are considered missing. Some of them were adopted by Russian families, others were transferred to military camps or placed in boarding schools.

Ukraine confirms the illegal deportation of more than 19,000 children to Russia. The Kremlin traditionally denies this information, stating that it is only "hundreds" of children.

We recall that, reducing US government programs, the Donald Trump administration abolished the initiative that accompanied the mass deportation of children from Ukraine. Democrats will demand its return in order to punish those responsible for the abduction of children. This decision means that researchers have lost access to large amounts of information, including satellite imagery. This data made it possible to track about 30,000 children taken by Russia.