Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) has built an evidence base and notified in absentia, of suspicion, the head of Donetsk's occupation administration, Oleksiy Kulemzin, and his subordinate, Olena Verbovska, who heads a "family and children's affairs department" set up under him, over the deportation of 31 Ukrainian children to Russia.
"According to case materials, they took part in organizing the deportation of Ukrainian children to the Poliany boarding facility outside Moscow, which is part of the structure of Russia's presidential property management department," the SBU said on Telegram Tuesday.
The suspects carried out a decree signed by Denys Pushilin, head of the terrorist organization "DNR," which called for removing minors from Ukraine's temporarily seized territories to Russia, according to the SBU. To implement the decree, Pushilin enlisted his adviser Eleonora Fedorenko and Svitlana Maiboroda, the former head of an illegally established "family and children's affairs service," whom the SBU notified in absentia of suspicion of committing war crimes in fall 2024.
The investigation found that the officials organized the forced removal of at least 31 Ukrainian children to Russia, including 16 boys and 15 girls.
Twenty-two of the minors were deported from the temporarily occupied Mariupol district, according to the investigation. "Three of the children were forcibly taken from their biological father, who was later imprisoned at the Olenivka penal colony. Nine more children were forcibly taken from social service centers for children in Shakhtarsk and Khartsyzk. Besides being moved to 'Putin's boarding facility,' some of the children were handed over to Russian citizens for 'guardianship,'" the SBU said.
One minor from Mariupol was forcibly handed over to Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian president's commissioner for children's rights, according to the statement.
"In doing so, the suspects grossly violated Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War, which prohibits the forcible transfer or deportation of persons from occupied territory," the SBU said.
SBU investigators have notified Kulemzin and Verbovska in absentia of suspicion under Part 2, Article 28, and Part 1, Article 438 of Ukraine's Criminal Code (war crimes committed by a group of people acting in prior conspiracy). Since the suspects are hiding in temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory, comprehensive measures are underway to bring them to justice, the SBU said.
