ICC Could Prosecute Belarus for Role in Systematic Kidnapping and Deportation of Ukrainian Children

The International Criminal Court could bring Belarus on trial for its participation in the deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, if evidence is found, despite the fact that Belarus is not a member of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

This was reported by the spokesperson of the ICC, Fadi El Abdallah, in a commentary to Babel journalists.

According to El Abdallah, the deportation of children to the ICC is a matter of jurisdiction over a specific crime.

"We are talking about the fact that such crimes could have been committed on the territory of Ukraine. That is, regardless of whether the children were brought to Russia or elsewhere, such acts may fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC if the abduction itself was at least partially committed on the territory of Ukraine," explained Abdallah.

He recalled that during the winter of 2024, the Belarusian authorities showed a group of Ukrainian children from the Russian-occupied city of Antratsyt. They were sent to the Belarusian Mogilev, where they were placed in a sanatorium, where the Belarusian military conducted training for them.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russia has illegally deported a minimum of 20,000 Ukrainian children, according to the Ukrainian Ombudsman for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets. He warned that approximately 1.5 million more children, currently in Russian-occupied territories, face the risk of deportation.