Ukraine's 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 involved in the deportation of Ukrainian children during the occupation of Mykolaiv Oblast. Source: SSU; Prosecutor General's Office Details: The suspect is the commander of a unit of the 205th Separate Motorised Rifle Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces, Dzhabrail "Gabriel" Yusupov.

The case materials show that in July 2022, 20 Russian soldiers under Yusupov's command broke into the premises of the then seized Novopetrivka special boarding school and abducted 15 pupils (eleven boys and four girls aged 8 to 17).

Among them were 12 orphans and children deprived of parental care; two were in the institution due to difficult life situation;  and a girl who had already been adopted by US citizens but could not be taken away in time 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 first transported to temporarily occupied Crimea, and then sent, convoyed by the Russian forces, to Anapa, 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 - Russian nationalism was imposed on them.

The children were forbidden to speak their native language or use Ukrainian symbols, and were forced to sing the Russian national anthem every morning. In November 2022, with the help of a charitable organisation, the deportees were taken from Russia to Georgia to be returned home. Based on the evidence collected, SSU investigators notified Yusupov in absentia of suspicion of violating 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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