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Breakthrough in War Crimes Probe—Hacked Data Exposes Mass Illegal Child Transfers in Occupied Territories
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![Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko]( "Photo of Dariia Mykhailenko")
Cyber specialists of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (HUR) have obtained new evidence of the large-scale abduction of Ukrainian children from temporarily occupied territories.
According to HUR on July 30, as part of a major cyber operation, Ukrainian intelligence officers gained access to the servers of the so-called “government of Crimea.” These servers contained documents confirming the forcible transfer of children from the occupied areas of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk regions.
The operation provided access to several thousand lists of deported children, personal files of children left without guardianship, as well as illegal decisions appointing new guardians—citizens of the Russian Federation—to forcibly relocated orphans, HUR reported. The addresses of the new places of residence and settlement of the abducted Ukrainian children were also identified.
“Thousands of files containing invaluable information for justice about one of Russia’s largest war crimes—the abduction of Ukrainian children—have already been handed over to law enforcement agencies. They will be analyzed and added to criminal proceedings. The obtained data will help locate and return the abducted children to their homeland and bring those responsible for this crime to justice,” said Andrii Yusov, a representative of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence.
Earlier, three Ukrainian children were successfully returned from Russia and the temporarily occupied territories, and are now reunited with their families.
Among the rescued were two teenagers, aged 16 and 17, who had resisted constant pressure and threats from occupying forces. Despite the risks, they refused to attend Russian-run schools and continued studying in a Ukrainian online school in secret.
