The European Court of Human Rights has notified the government of the Russian Federation regarding application No. 6719/23, submitted by the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union on behalf of ten Ukrainian children who were taken from Crimea following the occupation of the peninsula in 2014. The Court requested that the Russian side submit its official observations by 31 July 2025.

According to the application, the case concerns children aged one to five who were under state care in children’s institutions at the time of occupation. Following the establishment of control over Crimea, the Russian occupiers refused to return the children to Ukraine, failed to disclose their whereabouts, and later published their profiles on a Russian adoption website.

The Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union believes some of the children may have already been adopted, as their profiles have since been removed. In 2014, the Russian administration declared more than 4,000 Ukrainian children from Crimea, who lacked parental care, to be citizens of the Russian Federation.

The application to the Court is based on several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, including the right to respect for private life, liberty, and personal security. The arbitrary change of citizenship and subsequent adoptions are seen as actions that stripped the children of their Ukrainian social identity. Additionally, their continued placement in institutions under Russian control is considered a violation of their rights.

It should be noted that the Russian Federation has been deporting and relocating Ukrainian children from occupied territories since 2014, with such violations expanding in scale following the full-scale invasion in 2022.

The Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea supports the European Court’s proceedings and calls for the return of all unlawfully relocated Ukrainian children.