The occupying authorities have begun removing children from orphanages in Sevastopol

By the end of 2027, there should be no children left in orphanages in occupied Sevastopol. The occupying authorities plan to place all the children in families, following previous instances of the forced relocation of Ukrainian children to Russia.

Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian Federation’s Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights, announced the occupying authorities’ intentions, according to the Crimean Tatar Resource Center.

According to the occupying authorities’ official, the relevant agreements have already been reached. They plan to implement this plan through support for families and changes in the operations of children’s institutions.

As noted by the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, following the occupation of Crimea in 2014, Russia began the practice of forcing Russian citizenship upon Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian children and transferring them into its own adoption system.

In particular, on October 13, 2026, the European Court of Human Rights issued a ruling in the case of ten Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied Crimea. The aggressor state declared them its citizens and included them in its adoption system.

According to the applicants, some of the children may have been adopted by Russian citizens or transferred to Russia. The occupying authorities concealed information about the children’s whereabouts and their subsequent fate.

Анна Літман