Russia has been violating international law by taking Ukrainian children against their will and integrating them into Russian families. This is stated in the article by the Lieber Institute on Russia’s Forcible Transfer of Children and it says that “the European parliament adopted a resolution condemning the forced transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia. The resolution follows months of reporting that Russian authorities have been separating children from their parents, conducting abductions from Ukrainian orphanages, hospitals, and other children’s institutions and putting the children up for adoption in Russia.”
The primary person in charge of this mass abduction is Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova. Over one-hundred thousand Ukrainians have died as a result of Russia’s invasion, creating many Ukrainian orphans. Russia has been taking a lot of children out of Ukrainian orphanages and placing them up for adoption in Russian orphanages. The reason that Maria Lvova-Belova is mandating Russia to take in these Ukrainian orphans, and purporting that it would be unethical to leave Ukrainian orphans to fend for themselves. The rationale behind Lvova-Belova’s actions seems to be with good intentions, however, it goes against international and Ukrainian law. It violates the Geneva Convention (Convention IV, Article 27 and elaborated in Article 77 of Additional Protocol I of 1977), which states that children are protected from any form of indecent assault. Russia has been the oppressor of Ukraine but is now trying to act like they are Ukraine’s savior as it relates to the subject of orphans.
In addition, Russia’s actions can be classified as genocide. This is due to Article 2 of the Convention of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948. It states that “forcibly transferring children of a national group to another group, with intent to destroy that national group in whole or in part, may constitute genocide.” Russia is most definitely trying to destroy Ukraine and its people and has already destroyed them in part with the intent to destroy them completely. As stated previously in this article, the European Parliament essentially condemned Russia for the “forced transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia.” As Russia has already destroyed Ukraine (national group) in part and has the intent to destroy them wholly and has taken Ukrainian children (children of said national group), this constitutes genocide (although not in the traditional sense but in an equally horrifying and depraved manner, if not worse due to the involvement of children). Ukraine is currently trying to prove this in The Hague (where international cases on things like war crimes are tried). These orphans being taken to Russia en masse constitutes a war crime, as “international humanitarian law classifies the forced mass deportation of people during a conflict as a war crime” (Deutsch et al, 1). And, as Russia is “forcibly transferring children,” this qualifies as genocide under the 1948 Genocide Convention. This Convention “outlawed the intent to destroy – in whole or in part – a national, ethnic, racial or religious group” (Deutsch et al, 1). Ukrainian children are having their culture replaced with that of Russia. While they claim to have no ulterior motives, this constitutes genocide of Ukrainian children.

Sources:
Westpoint
Reuters
Euro News
Forbes
Unicef
United States Institute of Peace
United Nations
Business Insider