Digital trail of missing Ukrainian children leads to stop at Europe’s human rights court

Advocates for 10 Ukrainian children listed on Russian adoption websites ask Europe’s human rights court to hold Moscow accountable for their disappearance and loss of identity.(CN) — Ten Ukrainian children appeared on Russian adoption websites, and their advocates asked Europe’s human rights court Tuesday to make Moscow explain where they went.The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union (UHHRU) asks the European Court of Human Rights to find Russia responsible for the children’s forced disappearance and erasure of their Ukrainian identity. Ukraine seeks disclosure of their whereabouts and steps toward their return. Russia submitted no arguments and sent no representative.The children did not have to cross a border to fall under Russian control. They were ages 1 to 5, living in institutions in Crimea because they were orphaned or lacked parental care, when Russia seized the peninsula in 2014. The union says Russian authorities took over the institutions, imposed citizenship and listed them for adoption. Russia refused Ukraine’s requests to transfer them. Records later placed some in institutions inside Russia.The union argues placement with foster or adoptive families continued an unlawful deprivation of liberty — the children remained under Russian state control, unable to consent or leave. Ukraine, their legal guardian, never agreed to hand them over.Their identity was also at stake, the union contends. Russian citizenship made them eligible for Russian adoption, while secrecy rules allowing changes to names and birth details threatened to conceal their Ukrainian origins even from the children themselves.The union needs the court’s permission to represent children it cannot contact for authorization. Applicants’ counsel Serghiy Zayets said: “Had this application not been lodged by UHHRU, the violations of the children’s convention rights would never have been raised.”Ukrainian government agent Marharyta Sokorenko pointed to Moscow’s exclusive access to official records, saying: “Russia does not answer because Russia holds the answer.” Ukraine argues Russia must account for the missing children and rejects its earlier defense that Crimea had joined the federation and its treatment of the children complied with Russian law.The union filed its application in 2023, nearly nine years after the takeover. Judges pressed for an explanation for the delay. The union argues discovering adoption listings was different from identifying individual children well enough to bring their claims. Zayets said crucial confidential information reached him shortly before filing. The court formally notified Russia in March 2025.The court in Strasbourg, France, hears complaints against governments under the European Convention on Human Rights, adopted in 1950 to help prevent a repeat of World War II’s abuses. Russia ceased being a treaty party in 2022, after its expulsion from the Council of Europe over its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but remains answerable for earlier conduct.Judges pressed the union on whether its January 2023 application could proceed. The union claims the violations were continuing and that it filed within the four-month deadline counted from Russia’s departure.Presiding judge Lado Chanturia cautioned that Moscow’s silence did not give the applicants an automatic win. Their claims must still be supported by evidence.The union points to records indicating transfers to institutions in Rostov and Lipetsk, alongside adoption profile updates suggesting later family placements. Some profiles explicitly recorded placement with families; others disappeared without explanation. Only one remains online. The union acknowledges that those clues cannot establish every child’s current whereabouts or prove each was adopted.The court gave the children’s representatives one week to put the profile details in writing. Judges will deliberate privately on whether the case can proceed and whether Russia violated the children’s rights, with no date yet set for a judgment.Courthouse News reporter Eunseo Hong is based in the Netherlands.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads