How Moscow grabs Ukrainian kids and makes them Russians

By SARAH EL DEEB, ANASTASIIA SHVETS and ELIZAVETA TILNA
Associated Press

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 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.