Kremlin-appointed Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova confirmed on July 31 that Russia has transferred 4.8 million Ukrainians, including over 700,000 children, to the Russian Federation since the beginning of the war, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has said.

"In a report on the activities 'authorized by the President of the Russian Federation for children's rights' in 2022, Lvova-Belova claimed that Russia has 'received' 4.8 million Ukrainians since February 2022 and noted that the vast majority of the 700,000 children who arrived to Russia did not have parental or guardian supervision," the analysts said.

The report "carefully frames these activities as humanitarian gestures of goodwill. International humanitarian law, however, defines the forced transfer of civilians to the territory of an occupying power as 'deportation'."

"And the circumstances of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the situation in occupied territories are likely sufficiently coercive to mean that most 'transfers' of Ukrainian civilians to Russia meet the threshold of forced deportation, which is prohibited under Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, regardless of Russia's claimed motive," the ISW said.

ISW continues to assess that Russian authorities are conducting a large-scale campaign to deport Ukrainians to the Russian Federation.