Ukraine wants to introduce penalties for smuggling children to Russia

Forced removal of citizens violates norms of Article 49 of the Geneva Convention on the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.

The website of the Ukrainian parliament has said that MPs want to add a new Article 438-1. In such a case, those who would forcibly remove people from the territory of Ukraine in conditions of armed aggression would face a penalty of seven to ten years in prison.

The authors of the draft law believe that the Russian government is forming a new legislative field. It will allow illegal adoption of forcibly removed children from Ukraine.

An explanatory note to the draft law said:

Such unlawful actions are committed both by representatives of the Russian occupation regime and by Ukrainian citizens or former citizens of Ukraine (before the Russian military invasion) who adopted Russian citizenship and facilitate with the Russian occupation regime, carry out complicity in such crimes. Given the high public danger of these criminal offences, their mass, systemic and purposeful nature, threat to the Ukrainian gene pool in general, it is reasonable to establish criminal liability for such actions in