Russia's alleged forced transfer of thousands of children from Ukraine is "probably the largest forced deportation in modern history", Ukrainian foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba said on Monday at an event on the sidelines of the Human Rights Council.
"The most chilling crime is that Russia steals Ukrainian children," Mr Kuleba said in a video message to a packed room on the opening day of the council in Geneva where Russia's alleged war crimes in Ukraine are being addressed.
"This is a genocidal crime," he added.
A recent report said Russia has held at least 6,000 Ukrainian children - likely many more - in sites in Russian-held Crimea and Russia whose primary purpose appears to be political re-education.
The report said Yale University researchers had identified at least 43 camps and other facilities where Ukrainian children have been held that were part of a "large-scale systematic network" operated by Moscow since its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The children included those with parents or clear familial guardianship, those Russia deemed orphans, others who were in the care of Ukrainian state institutions before the invasion and those whose custody was unclear or uncertain due to the war, it said.
"The primary purpose of the camp facilities we've identified appears to be political re-education," Nathaniel Raymond, one of the researchers, said in a briefing to reporters.
Some of the children were moved through the system and adopted by Russian families, or moved into foster care in Russia, the report said.
The youngest child identified in the Russian programme was just four months old, and some camps were giving military training to children as young as 14 years, Raymond said, adding that researchers had not found evidence those children were later deployed in combat.
