Putin’s Kremlin planes took away Ukrainian children for adoption, report alleges

Russian presidential aircraft and funds were used in a program that took children from occupied Ukrainian territories, stripped them of Ukrainian identity and placed them with Russian families, according to a report by Yale's School of Public Health. (AFP/File)
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Updated 03 December 2024
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Putin’s Kremlin planes took away Ukrainian children for adoption, report alleges

  • The new research offers details of the alleged deportation program and individuals involved, including what its lead researcher said were new links to Putin
  • Nathaniel Raymond, Executive Director of Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab, said he was scheduled to present the findings to the UN Security Council on Wednesday

THE HAGUE: Russian presidential aircraft and funds were used in a program that took children from occupied Ukrainian territories, stripped them of Ukrainian identity and placed them with Russian families, according to a report by Yale’s School of Public Health.
The US State Department-backed research, published on Tuesday, identified 314 Ukrainian children taken to Russia in the early months of the war in Ukraine as part of what it says was a systematic, Kremlin-funded program to “Russify” them.
Reuters was unable to confirm the report’s findings independently.
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his child rights’ commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, for the alleged war crime of deportation of Ukrainian children.
At the time, Lvova-Belova said her commission acted on humanitarian grounds to protect children in an area of military hostilities. Lvova-Belova’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The Kremlin said it could not respond to questions sent on Monday, citing a lack of time.
The new research, reported first by Reuters, offers details of the alleged deportation program and individuals involved, including what its lead researcher said were new links to Putin.
The researcher, Nathaniel Raymond, Executive Director of Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab, said he was scheduled to present the findings to the UN Security Council on Wednesday. The United States holds the rotating presidency of the 15-member body this month.
Raymond said the research offers evidence that would support additional charges by the ICC against Putin of “forcible transfer” of people from one national and ethnic group to another.
He further said the report proved “the deportation of Ukraine’s children is part of a systematic, Kremlin-led program” to make them citizens of Russia.
Forcible transfer is a crime against humanity under international law. Because they must be widespread and systematic, crimes against humanity are considered more serious than war crimes.
In response to Reuters questions, the ICC office of the prosecutor said the Yale report was useful “in our continued activities in this case.” It declined to provide information about charges or actions that may arise from its Ukraine investigations.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, reacting to the report, said in a statement on X: “Ukraine is tirelessly working to ensure our children return home and that all those responsible for these heinous crimes are punished.”
The country’s prosecutor general said Yale’s report complemented its own investigations into what had happened to the children, describing “a well-planned Kremlin policy with legislative changes, political decisions, and dedicated funding.”
In response to the ICC charges last year, Lvova-Belova said Russia had not moved anyone against their will or that of their parents or legal guardians, whose consent was always sought unless they were missing.
She said children were placed with temporary legal guardians and were not given up for adoption.
Russia, which does not recognize the ICC, has said the court’s warrants are meaningless. Court decisions could nonetheless limit travel by charged individuals because its 124 member states have an obligation to execute warrants.

CHILDREN IDENTIFIED
The research is based on data mined from three Russian government adoption databases over 20 months. Yale’s investigation then mapped out the alleged program’s logistics and funding and confirmed the identities of the 314 children, Raymond said.
The research is part of an initiative led by the State Department under President Joe Biden to document potential violations of international law and crimes against humanity by Russia and Russia-aligned forces in Ukraine.
The US State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The report said Ukrainian children brought to Russia had been subjected to “pro-state and militarised propaganda,” noting it had documented such “patriotic re-education” at all the facilities where the children were processed.
Reuters has documented the transfer of thousands of children to Russian camps, the forced naturalization of Ukrainians and the involvement of Belarus in the program.
Stephen Rapp, the US ambassador-at-large for war crimes under former president Barack Obama and formerly a prosecutor at the international tribunals for Rwanda and Sierra Leone, reviewed the report and told Reuters that “it proves their direct involvement, making changes to law and practice to allow and accelerate coercive adoptions that would have been illegal under Russia’s own law in February 2022.”
Kyiv estimates around 19,500 children have been taken to Russia or Russian-occupied Crimea since the invasion. Lvova-Belova has challenged Kyiv’s numbers and asked it to provide evidence.
She previously said 380 orphans and children not in the custody of parents were placed with Russian foster families between April and October 2022.

FLIGHTS
Russia began taking Ukrainian children from occupied Ukrainian territories in the days before the invasion in Feb. 2022, according to the report.
Russia’s Aerospace Forces and aircraft under the direct control of Putin’s office transported multiple groups of children from Ukraine on Russian Federation-flagged military transport planes between May and October 2022, the report said.
The report said at least two groups of children flew on aircraft managed by the Presidential Property Management Department within the Presidential Administration in May and October 2022.
Children taken to the Chkalovsky military airfield just outside Moscow on Sept. 16, 2022 had been transported from the occupied Ukrainian territories of Donetsk and Luhansk to the Russian city of Rostov, not far from Ukraine’s border, then flown on a plane with tail number RA-85123, the report said.
The aircraft is a TU-154M operated by the 223rd Flight Squad of the Russian Defense Ministry, it said. Flight tracking data on website Flightradar24.com also confirmed this.
Of the 314 Ukrainian children identified, 166 were placed directly with Russia citizens, the report said. The other 148 were listed in Russia’s child placement databases, with about a third of those now placed with Russian citizens. The remaining children were last known to be located at Russian institutions, the report said.


Pro-Palestinian protesters target military and defense industry recruiters at UK universities

Updated 7 sec ago
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Pro-Palestinian protesters target military and defense industry recruiters at UK universities

  • Activists confront Royal Air Force recruiters at careers fairs in Newcastle, Glasgow, York and Cardiff
  • About 20 defense companies reportedly forced to steer clear of events because of security risks

LONDON: The UK’s military and defense industries are being forced to avoid university careers fairs because of pro-Palestinian protesters.

Student activists have targeted representatives of the Royal Air Force in recent months during events at which they were attempting to recruit graduates, The Times newspaper reported.

Videos and images shared on social media show RAF recruiters shutting down display stands or leaving them while the protests take place.

About 20 defense companies have stopped attending university careers events because of security concerns about the protests, it was reported last week.

The demonstrations are part of the widespread activism in the UK in response to Israel’s military operations in Gaza that have killed more than 46,000 Palestinians since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led attacks on Israel in which about 1,200 people were killed and at least 250 taken hostage.

Protesters have also targeted the factories of UK defense companies that supply Israel, and called on the British government to halt arms deliveries.

One protest group, called “Newcastle Apartheid Off Campus,” claimed to have shut down a recruitment fair at Newcastle University at which the RAF and defense firm BAE Systems were represented.

And about 20 students surrounded the recruitment stands of GE Aerospace, the RAF and BAE Systems at Glasgow University in October.

“The students managed to kick out BAE Systems, RAF and (defense and intelligence company) CGI,” the Glasgow University Justice for Palestine Society said in a message posted on Instagram.

“Shame on Glasgow University, we continue to demand divestment and cutting all ties with these genocidal companies.”

Similar disruptions took place at a recruitment fair at York University in October and during an RAF talk at Cardiff University the same month.

In a letter to ministers, Lord Walney, the UK government’s independent adviser on political violence and disruption, warned that the protests go beyond peaceful assembly and could “seriously undermine our nation’s security and technical edge.”

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson told The Times: “We continue to engage widely with our industry partners to highlight the importance and significant benefits of a career in the defense sector.

“This government recognizes the vital role of the defense sector as an engine for growth, strengthening our security and economy.”


Los Angeles firefighters brace for threat of more powerful winds

Updated 21 min 49 sec ago
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Los Angeles firefighters brace for threat of more powerful winds

  • Local officials urged residents to stay vigilant throughout the day on Wednesday and be prepared to evacuate at a moment’s notice
  • Some 6.5 million people remained under a critical fire threat

LOS ANGELES: The threat of powerful wind gusts combined with bone-dry humidity in Los Angeles on Wednesday could pose a severe test for firefighters who have been battling to keep monstrous fires in check since last week.
Local officials urged residents to stay vigilant throughout the day on Wednesday and be prepared to evacuate at a moment’s notice, even after tamer-than-expected winds over the last 24 hours.
“We want to reiterate the particularly dangerous situation today. Get ready now and be prepared to leave,” County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath said during a news conference on Wednesday.
Some 6.5 million people remained under a critical fire threat as winds were forecast to be 20 to 40 miles (32-64 km) an hour with gusts up to 70 mph and humidity dropping into the single digits during the day, the National Weather Service said.
The combination of low humidity and strong winds has further dried out the brush, increasing the risk of fire, Los Angeles City Fire Chief Kristin Crowley said.
“The danger has not yet passed,” she said, noting that firefighters have seen up to 40 mph winds on Wednesday.
The death toll from the fires stood at 25. The estimate of structures damaged or destroyed held steady at over 12,000, portending a Herculean rebuilding effort ahead. Entire neighborhoods have been leveled, leaving smoldering ash and rubble. In many homes, only a chimney is left standing. Some 82,400 residents were still under evacuation orders with other 90,400 facing evacuation warnings, County Sheriff Robert Luna said.
Winds were tamer than expected on Tuesday, letting firefighters extinguish or gain control of some small brush fires that ignited. No major wildfires erupted in the area, as had been feared.
During the day, the milder-than-expected conditions also allowed some 8,500 firefighters from at least seven states and two foreign countries to hold the line on the Palisades and Eaton fires for the second day running.
The Palisades Fire on the west edge of town held steady at 23,713 acres (96 square km) burned, and containment nudged up to 19 percent — a measurement of how much of the perimeter was under control. The Eaton Fire in the foothills east of the city stood at 14,117 acres (57 sq km) with containment at 45 percent. The fires have consumed an area the size of Washington, D.C.
“In the past 24 hours, there has been little to no fire growth on both incidents,” Cal Fire Incident Commander Gerry Magaña said.
A fleet of aircraft dropped water and retardant into the rugged hills while ground crews with hand tools and hoses have worked around the clock since the fires broke out on Jan. 7, with the aircraft occasionally grounded by high winds.
Crowley and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass fielded questions on Wednesday about a Los Angeles Times report that 1,000 firefighters were on standby but not quickly deployed after fire broke out on Jan. 7.
“We did everything in our capability to surge where we could,” Crowley said.
Southern California has lacked any appreciable rain since April, turning brush into tinder as Santa Ana winds originating from the deserts whipped over hilltops and rushed through canyons, sending embers flying up to two miles ahead of the fires.
Private forecaster AccuWeather estimates total damage and economic loss between $250 billion and $275 billion, which would make it the costliest natural disaster in US history, surpassing Hurricane Katrina in 2005.


Danish PM tells Trump it is up to Greenland to decide on independence

Updated 41 min 32 sec ago
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Danish PM tells Trump it is up to Greenland to decide on independence

  • Trump said last week that US control of Greenland was an “absolute necessity“
  • Frederiksen also emphasized the importance of strengthening security in the Arctic

COPENHAGEN: Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said on Wednesday she had spoken on the phone with US President-elect Donald Trump and told him that it is up to Greenland itself to decide on any independence.
Trump, who takes office on Jan. 20, said last week that US control of Greenland was an “absolute necessity” and did not rule out using military or economic action such as tariffs against Denmark to make it happen.
“In the conversation, the prime minister referred to the statements of the Chairman of the Greenlandic Parliament, Mute B. Egede, that Greenland is not for sale,” Frederiksen’s office said in a statement.
“The prime minister emphasized that it is up to Greenland itself to make a decision on independence,” the statement said.
Frederiksen also emphasized the importance of strengthening security in the Arctic and that Denmark was open to taking a greater responsibility, it added.


Russia planned ‘acts of terrorism’ in the air, Polish PM says

Updated 15 January 2025
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Russia planned ‘acts of terrorism’ in the air, Polish PM says

  • The explosions occurred in depots in Britain, Germany and Poland in July
  • Russia has denied involvement in the incidents and Tusk did not mention them specifically

WARSAW: Russia planned ‘acts of terrorism’ in the air against Poland and other countries, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday after meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Warsaw.
Security officials have said that parcels that exploded at logistics depots in Europe were part of a test run for a Russian plot to trigger explosions on cargo flights to the United States. The explosions occurred in depots in Britain, Germany and Poland in July. Russia has denied involvement in the incidents and Tusk did not mention them specifically.
“The latest information can confirm the validity of fears that Russia was planning acts of terrorism in the air not only against Poland,” Tusk told a news conference. He did not say what acts he was referring to or elaborate on the contents of the information.
Moscow has regularly denied any involvement in the courier depot explosions, as well as break-ins, arson and attacks on individuals which Western officials say were carried out by operatives paid by Russia. The Russian embassy in Warsaw has not immediately replied to an emailed request for comment on Tusk’s statement.


US must not become complacent to a growing terrorism threat, a Counterterrorism Center official says

Updated 15 January 2025
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US must not become complacent to a growing terrorism threat, a Counterterrorism Center official says

  • “We are in a period where we are facing an elevated threat environment,” Holmgren said
  • He also points to mass migration from the Russia-Ukraine war that has sent central Asians to countries including Turkiye, Syria, Iraq and even the US

UNITED STATES: Brett Holmgren got woken up early on New Year’s Day by alerts that a driver had plowed into a crowd of revellers in New Orleans.
The rampage, which killed 14 people, was the deadliest attack on US soil in years and was inspired by the Daesh group.
The National Counterterrorism Center, which Holmgren leads, sprang into action to help the FBI run down information on the culprit from Texas and his plot.
It was a rare recent example of a mass attack motivated by religious extremism to hit the US homeland. But it didn’t occur in a vacuum, coming at a time when a terror threat that has waxed and waned in the two decades since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks is decidedly on the rise around the world.
“We are in a period where we are facing an elevated threat environment,” Holmgren said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We faced that last year. We’re going to face it again in 2025.”
The NCTC emerged in the aftermath of 9/11 as a centralized US government hub to collect and analyze data and intelligence on the international terrorism threat, providing information to the White House and other agencies to shape policy decisions and protect against attacks.
A former counterterrorism analyst and assistant secretary of state, Holmgren was named its acting director last July and intends to step aside at the conclusion of the Biden administration.
At that point, new leadership under President-elect Donald Trump will grapple with managing some of the global hot spots like Syria that have vexed officials in recent months and that the NCTC has been tracking.
Holmgren cites multiple factors for why the threat is higher than before, including passions arising from the Israel-Hamas war — a conflict that he says has been a driving factor in some 45 attacks worldwide since October 2023. He also points to mass migration from the Russia-Ukraine war that has sent central Asians, some with ties to the Daesh group, to countries including Turkiye, Syria, Iraq and even the US
Around the world, officials are monitoring tensions in Africa, which Holmgren called potentially the greatest long-term threat to US security given that the Daesh group has a large footprint on the continent and is investing resources there.
He says the “most potent overseas threat facing the United States” right now is the group’s Afghanistan-based affiliate, known as Daesh-Khorasan, whose attacks include a March 2024 massacre at a Moscow theater and the August 2021 bombing that killed 13 US service members and about 170 Afghans in the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
One ongoing spot of concern is Syria, where an insurgent group named Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham, or HTS, led a lightning offensive last month that toppled the government of President Bashar Assad.
HTS is a Sunni Islamist group that formerly had ties with Al-Qaeda, although its leader has preached religious coexistence since taking over in Damascus. The group has not plotted against US interests in recent years and has been “the most effective counterterrorism partner on the ground,” Holmgren said.
HTS has been designated by the State Department as a foreign terror organization, a label that carries severe sanctions.
Asked whether that designation would remain, Holmgren said that was a policy decision, though he noted: “They want to be perceived as being on the right side of the international community at this time when it comes to (counterterrorism). But we will continue to evaluate not just their words but also the actions that they’re undertaking.”
In an indication of Syria’s continued instability, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told The Associated Press last week that the US needs to keep troops there to prevent the Daesh group from reconstituting, and intelligence officials in Syria’s new de facto government already have thwarted a plan by Daesh to set off a bomb at a Shiite shrine in a Damascus suburb.
US officials, meanwhile, remain concerned about the possibility of Daesh gaining strength by taking over weapons left behind by Assad’s government or through a mass release of fighters who are now imprisoned.
“A large-scale prisoner release in Syria could provide a real boost in the arm for IS at a time where they have been under significant pressure,” Holmgren said.
The counterterrorism center’s focus is on international terrorism, which includes cases in the US like the New Orleans rampage in which the attacker was inspired by a group from abroad. The culprit, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, pledged his allegiance to Daesh in videos he recorded just before he drove his speeding pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street early on Jan. 1.
As of now, Holmgren said, there’s no evidence that Jabbar was communicating with any Daesh operatives overseas or guided by anyone, but given that he was a lone actor who was radicalized, “this symbolizes exactly the type of attack that we’ve warned about for some time.”
“And I think it illustrates that while we have been quite effective as a government and across administrations at disrupting plotting overseas and going after terrorist leaders, we have a lot more work to do when it comes to countering violent extremism at home, countering violent extremist propaganda abroad,” he added.
“That is ultimately what is going to be needed to prevent more attacks like the one in New Orleans,” Holmgren said.
By the same token, through vast intelligence collection, hardened defenses and overseas counterterrorism operations, the US has made the risk of another large-scale attack like Sept. 11 lower than it’s ever been.
“But if we get complacent as a country,” he warned, “it will come back to bite us.”