– 12-year-old Misha from the occupied Donetsk region and 16-year-old Liza from occupied Simferopol were sent to the Songdowon camp in North Korea, 9,000 kilometers from home.
Ukrainian Kateryna Kareshavska told that when she testified in a Senate hearing in Washington DC on Wednesday
Kareshavska is a legal expert at the Regional Office for Human Rights (RCHR), established in Sevastopol in 2013, but now with an office in Kyiv.
According to the RCHR report, the children were taught, among other things, to “destroy Japanese militarists” and they met veterans who attacked the US Navy ship USS Pueblo off the coast of North Korea in 1968.
Read also: International law expert on Russia‘s practice: – Like stealing children
Knows 165 camps
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RCHR says it knows of 165 camps where Ukrainian children are being “militarized and Russified”. These are camps located in occupied territories, Russia, Belarus and also in North Korea.
– If we want to create lasting peace, we must start with the children, was the message from Kateryna Kareshavska.
She said she hopes the United States will pass the bill from Senator Lindsey Graham that would designate Russia a terrorist state if the abducted Ukrainian children are not returned.
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Hellestveit: – Shouldn’t happen
Lawyer, researcher and expert on international law, Cecilie Hellestveit, will not readily believe the report that Ukrainian children have been sent to camps in North Korea.
– I am skeptical about the veracity of this, she says to Nettavisen.
However, she is crystal clear that forcibly moving children during a war is a violation of international law.
– The forced relocation of children in a war should not happen, other than emergency evacuation out of a combat zone, says Hellestveit.
The UN General Assembly on Wednesday adopted a resolution condemning Russia’s deportation of children and demanding that they be returned to Ukraine. (See fact box)
Meeting leader Annalena Baerbock referred to Article 49 of the Geneva Conventions. It prohibits the forcible transfer or deportation of children from occupied territory under any circumstances.
The UN demands that deported children be returned to Ukraine
The UN condemns Russia’s deportation of children and demands that the children be returned to Ukraine.
The resolution “Return of Ukrainian children” (document A/ES.11/L.16/Rev.1) was adopted with 91 votes in favour, 12 against and 57 abstentions at a meeting of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday 3 December.
It thus obtained the necessary two-thirds majority.
The resolution demands that Russia immediately ensure the safe and unconditional return of all Ukrainian children who have been forcibly transferred or deported from occupied territory.
It further calls on Russia to stop this practice now and likewise to stop separating families and “changing” the status of children through citizenship, adoption, foster care or indoctrination.
The UN General Assembly asks the UN Secretary-General to cooperate with Russia on the immediate, safe and unconditional return of all Ukrainian children who have been forcibly transferred or deported and to ensure effective coordination of UN bodies in this matter.
Annalena Baerbock, former German foreign minister and now president of the UN’s 80th General Assembly, recalled in her introduction that international law prohibits the forced transfer and deportation of children from occupied territory.
– International law is crystal clear, she said, referring to Article 49 of the Geneva Conventions. It prohibits the forcible transfer or deportation of children from occupied territory under any circumstances.
– What we are witnessing is therefore not just a tragedy for some children, but a violation of international law, she said.
Source: United Nations
Russia: – Not a single “abducted” child
Russia, for its part, claims that they are “evacuating” children, away from war and danger.
That was also the message the Russian embassy in Oslo presented to Nettavisen on 1 August this year.
– In fact, there is not a single “abducted” child. Russia rescues children from artillery attacks and transports them from the conflict zone to safe places. It is primarily about orphans and minors who are not supervised by legal representatives, it was said in an e-mail the embassy sent to Nettavisen.
Read also: Putin describes the meeting with Witkoff and Kushner as “very useful”
Katya and Ira from Krym
Two of the fates Kateryna Kareshavska told about in the hearing concerned one-year-old Katya and Ira, who in 2015 are said to have been forcibly displaced from occupied Krym to the Russian republic of Adygia in the northern part of the Caucasus.
The two were never returned.
– For over eleven years I have followed their fate and know that they were raised as Russian citizens in the foster family. Can it be said that they, or a thousand other children from the occupied Crimea, have been “evacuated” in line with international international law? What about thousands of others who, after 2022, have similarly ended up in 57 Russian regions? asked Kareshavska in the hearing in the US.
Has the names of 19,546 abducted children
The Ukrainian organization Bring Kids Back works to map the extent and to bring back Ukrainian children who have been illegally abducted or forced away. As of today, their record shows 19,546 abducted Ukrainian children. These are children the organization has named after. 1,876 children have been returned after they have been abducted, forcibly relocated or ended up in temporarily occupied areas.
The American Yale Humanitarian Research Lab has estimated that 35,000 Ukrainian children are still in Russian care, including those who have been sent to fight at the front against their homeland.
Ukraine’s ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets has put the number at 150,000 children, while Daria Herasymchuk, adviser to the President of Ukraine responsible for children’s rights, has suggested that it could be between 200,000 and 300,000, writes The Kyiv Independent.
Avisa has made a survey of how many Ukrainian children are in areas currently occupied by Russia, and estimates 1.6 million.
CHILDREN’S OFFICER: Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, at the office of Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 2, 2025. The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for the two in 2023.
Photo: Gavriil Grigorov (AFP)
Arrest warrant issued
Illegal deportation of children and illegal transfer of children from occupied territories is defined as a war crime, and Russia has drawn international condemnation for its practice.
The forced abduction and adoption program for Ukrainian children was also the reason why in 2023 the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova.
The latest on Ukraine – December 4, 2025
Day 1380 of the war in Ukraine.
Kherson in Kherson oblast in southern Ukraine and the port city of Odesa were among the cities that experienced Russian attacks on the night of Thursday.
Six people have been reported injured in the attack on Odesa, the state news agency Ukrinform reported on Thursday morning.
The energy company DTEK reports that a power station was hit in Odesa and that 51,800 households lost power. This is reported by NTB via Reuters.
A fire broke out at the facility. An administration building was destroyed. The fire was quickly extinguished. In nearby apartment blocks, two people got stuck and had to be helped out by rescue workers and police, Ukraine’s state emergency services report on Telegram.
Corresponding reports come from Kherson that a thermal power plant had been put out of action.
Kherson governor Oleksandr Prokudin writes on Facebook that Russia has attacked Kherson intensively in recent days, with drones, artillery and other weapons.
– Terrorists are fighting civilians again, he writes in a comment on the thermal power plant that was destroyed.
470 homes are without heat and over 40,500 subscribers are affected, he reports.
The governor says it will be necessary to look at alternative heat supply options.
Ukrainian authorities report that a woman was injured on Wednesday evening in a Russian rocket attack on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih. Four other people were reported wounded in Russian attacks earlier in the day, according to local authorities. This is reported by NTB.
In Slavyansk in the Donetsk region, eight people were wounded in a Russian attack, according to Governor Vadym Filashkin. It happened when Russian forces dropped nine bombs over the city throughout the day on Wednesday, with one of the bombs hitting an apartment block, according to the governor.
Signals from the Kremlin seem to prepare the ground for the justification of potential future aggression against Moldova and the Baltics, writes the American think tank Institute for the study of war (ISW) in an analysis published on 3 December.
They refer to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claiming on the same day that the authorities in the Baltic states and Moldova are passing “racist” laws and “discriminating” against the Russian population. This is wording similar to that used by the Kremlin to justify its invasions of Ukraine, ISW points out.
ISW has previously warned and still considers that Russia is in a phase where conditions are being set – informationally and psychologically – to prepare for a possible NATO-Russia conflict in the future.
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