SAMARKAND, UZBEKISTAN – SEPTEMBER 16, 2022: Russia's President Vladimir Putin gives a news conference following an SCO Heads of State Council summit at the Samarkand Tourist Centre. Sergei Bobylev/TASS/Sipa USA
Uzbekistan: Russia President Putin gives news conference in Samarkand
(AP) — An Associated Press investigation has found that Russia’s strategy to take Ukrainian orphans and bring them up as Russian is well underway.
It’s one of the war’s most explosive issues. The investigation drew on dozens of interviews with parents, officials and children in Ukraine and Russia.
It found that officials deported thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia or Russian-held territories without consent, lied to them that they were not wanted by their parents and gave them Russian families and citizenship. Experts say it is a strategy that can be traced up to senior Russian officials including President Vladimir Putin.
They add that raising children of war in another country and culture can be a marker of genocide.
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