First notices of suspicion served on Russians for kidnapping Ukrainian children

The Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine and the Security Service of Ukraine served a notice of suspicion on three people, who are accused of kidnapping Ukrainian children and forcibly deporting them to Russia.

Source: website of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine

Details: 48 children have been forcibly taken from the Kherson orphanage.

Ukrainska Pravda established that Igor Kastiukevich, member of the State Duma of Russia, Vadim Ilmiyev, head of the illegal occupying "Department of Healthcare of Kherson Oblast", and Tetiana Zavalska, acting head doctor of the Kherson orphanage, are suspected of this crime.

According to the investigation, Kastiukevich was in charge of the deportation process. He was responsible for solving the social issues of the population of Kherson Oblast and the issues of children in the occupied peninsula of Crimea.

At first Ilmiev and Zavalska organised the deportation of two children to Russia. The basis  for this was allegedly undergoing an examination in a Moscow hospital. Before that, the children were kept in an illegally created by the occupying authorities "children’s home" on the basis of the Kherson Oblast orphanage.

The investigation has established that the children did not need special medical treatment.

On 2 September 2022, unidentified persons took two children and deported them from Kherson to Russia by car.

On 21 October 2022, the staff of the "children’s home", headed by Zavalska on the order of Ilmiev, handed 46 more children over to unidentified persons.

It was happening in the presence and under the control of the member of the State Duma of Russia. The children have been deported to the territory of occupied Crimea. At the moment, their fate remains unknown.

It was member of the Russian Parliament Kastiukevich who controlled the boarding of the children on buses and their transportation when the children were being handed over for their further transfer.

The actions of the suspects were qualified as a criminal offence, violation of the laws and customs of war.

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