Kidnapping of 15 Ukrainian children from Novopetrivka: case of Russian military officer referred to court
The abduction and illegal removal of Ukrainian children from the occupied territories is one of the most serious crimes related to the Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine. Russian military forces deprive children of their family, security, familiar environment, and the right to grow up in their own country without coercion or ideological pressure. Behind each such episode is both a route of forced displacement and a breakdown in the children’s lives, in which the occupation begins with control over an institution or family, continues with isolation, and then turns into forced removal to Russia under the guise of “evacuation” or “protection.”
One such case was the episode in the village of Novopetrivka in the Kherson region, where during the occupation, Russian military forces took control of a school that housed orphans, children deprived of parental care, and children who found themselves in difficult life circumstances. After attempting to take them to Ukrainian-controlled territory, the occupiers disrupted evacuation preparations, used threats with weapons, and later organized the forced transfer of the children, which ended with their deportation to Russia.
As reported by the Prosecutor General’s Office, juvenile prosecutors have filed an indictment against a Russian serviceman who, according to the investigation, organized and personally participated in the illegal transfer of 15 Ukrainian children, after which they were deported to Russia. The information about this was made public by the Prosecutor General’s Office, specifying that the case concerns events during the occupation of the village of Novopetrivka in the Kherson region.
The investigation materials indicate that at that time there were 15 children in the local school, ten of whom were deprived of parental care, three had the status of orphans, and two more were in difficult life circumstances. They were looked after by the school principal together with her husband, and it was this group of children who became the object of forced deportation.
From the first days of the occupation, the Russian military kept the school under constant surveillance, as they controlled everything that happened inside the institution, inspected the premises, counted the children, and monitored the situation. This regime actually deprived the employees of the opportunity to act freely, although the principal was looking for a way to evacuate the children to a place where they could be safe under Ukrainian jurisdiction.
The preparations for the departure, which they tried to carry out under the conditions of occupation, became known to the Russian military, after which the situation sharply escalated. The investigation established that the accused arrived at the school together with other soldiers, threatening them with weapons, and the principal was then interrogated. To prevent any departure, three armed Russian soldiers were left at the school, who were to monitor every further step of the people who remained in the institution.
The very next day after these events, according to the investigation, the Russian military organized the forced transfer of the children. The removal took place under the protection of armed soldiers, and the school principal and her husband, who had previously taken care of them, were transported along with the children.
The first point on this route was the village of Stepanivka, where the children were held for about three months. Such a length of stay indicates that this was not limited to a short-term transfer for security reasons, since the children were taken from their place of residence, isolated from their usual environment, and left under the control of the occupying party for a long time.
The next stage took place on October 19, 2022, when the children were moved further along the established route through several settlements. First, they were transported by boat across the Dnieper to Oleshki, from there by bus to Armyansk, and then by train from Dzhankoy to Anapa in the Krasnodar Territory of the Russian Federation.
In Russia, the children were placed in a children’s institution, where their stay was accompanied by systemic pressure and the forced imposition of the Russian state and ideological order. According to the investigation, there they were forced to sing the Russian national anthem, participate in propaganda events, and were forbidden to speak Ukrainian and use Ukrainian symbols. This was accompanied by constant psychological pressure and control, which became part of the children’s daily life after their removal from the occupied Kherson region.
The circumstances established by the investigation are of particular importance for the entire case, since they relate to the reasons for which the occupying party could try to justify the removal of the children. The Prosecutor General’s Office stated in a statement that there were no grounds for the so-called “evacuation” because the school had food, medicine, and shelter, and there was no active fighting nearby.
This detail is important for understanding the overall picture, as it captures the gap between the real conditions on the ground and the actions of the Russian military, who organized the forced displacement. The children were taken out not because of a lack of means of survival or an immediate threat in the combat zone, but after it became known that the principal intended to find an opportunity to take them to the territory controlled by Ukraine.
The investigation established that the organizer of the crime is a serviceman of military unit No. 42091 – the 2nd Airborne Assault Battalion of the 108th Regiment of the 7th Airborne Assault Division of the 58th Army of the Southern Military District of the Russian Armed Forces.
Transferring the case to court means that the events described by the investigation will receive further procedural consideration in court, where the collected evidence, the circumstances of the abduction of the children from the occupied territory, and the role of a specific Russian serviceman in their removal to Russia will be evaluated.
