Ukrainian law enforcement identifies Russian who abducted 15 Ukrainian children during fighting for Mykolaiv

The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) and the Prosecutor General's Office have collected evidence against a Russian war criminal who was involved in the deportation of Ukrainian children during the occupation of Mykolaiv Oblast.

Source: SSU; Prosecutor General's Office

Details: The suspect, Dzhabrail "Gabriel" Yusupov, is the commander of a unit of the 205th Separate Motorised Rifle Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces.

The case materials show that in July 2022, 20 Russian soldiers under Yusupov’s command broke into the premises of the then seized Novopetrivka residential institution and abducted 15 pupils: eleven boys and four girls aged 8 to 17.

Twelve of them were orphans and children deprived of parental care; two were in the institution due to difficult life circumstances; and one girl had been adopted by US citizens who had been unable to take her away due to the start of the full-scale invasion, the prosecutor's office noted.

The children, together with the director of the institution and her husband, were initially taken to temporarily occupied Crimea and then, convoyed by Russian forces, sent to Anapa in Russia’s Krasnodar Krai.

The detainees were held there for almost a month in a local boarding house. Every day they were exposed to Russian propaganda and Russian nationalism was foisted upon them. The children were forbidden to speak their native language or use Ukrainian symbols and forced to sing the Russian national anthem every morning.

In November 2022, with help from a charity, the deportees were taken from Russia to Georgia to be returned home.

Based on the evidence collected, SSU investigators have served Yusupov in absentia with a notice of suspicion with respect to a violation of the laws and customs of war committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy.

Comprehensive measures are currently being taken to find Yusupov and punish him for his crimes against Ukrainians.

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