International police forces managed to find eight Ukrainian children abducted by Russian troops during a hackathon organised by the Dutch police and Europol.
What is known about the search for Ukrainian children abducted by Russia
As the AD publication notes, about 60 investigators from 23 countries, including the Netherlands, Austria, Germany and Sweden, gathered at Europol's headquarters in The Hague a few weeks ago.
They used satellite imagery, advanced facial recognition and geolocation — pinpointing the exact location of images using satellite images and other methods — to try to find Ukrainian children abducted after the Russian invasion.
It was the first time that international specialists in the field of digital open sources worked so closely on the topic of child abduction in Ukraine, said Vincent Cillessen from the international crime group of the Dutch police.
Since the beginning of the war in February 2022, thousands of Ukrainian children have been abducted by the Russians from their usual environment. This can be considered a war crime. Since we do not have physical access to Russia, we tried to find these children and criminals based on digital sources, he said.
He added that the law enforcement officers did not expect that the hackathon would immediately bring results.
We did not expect that this first joint hackathon would immediately bring results. We mainly wanted to learn from each other and exchange skills, but our employees immediately picked up on the idea. Given the success, we want to hold such events more often. We aim to hold it at least once a year, said Cillessen.
Vincent Cillessen
A specialist from the international crime group of the Dutch police
The police reported that among the found children were orphans who were forcibly relocated to the territory occupied by Russia. They are in various places and are also used for Russian propaganda purposes.
According to Cillessen, the information about the children was handed over to the Ukrainian authorities.
We are working with colleagues in Ukraine, and the police must now share information with family members and begin a criminal investigation into possible perpetrators. We hope that the Ukrainians will be able to do something about it. Based on this information, they will be able to return these children. But without knowing where these children are, you cannot start negotiations, he added.
What is known about the abduction of Ukrainian children
For Children's Day in 2023, the Online.UA team presented the documentary project "Abducted Childhood", which tells the story of Ukrainian children forcibly deported and abducted to Russia.
In the film "Abducted Childhood", children and their parents openly share their own stories: some of them were in captivity, some were forcibly taken to a "rehabilitation camp", some were separated from their parents during the so-called filtering measures.
It is important to understand that in more than a year and a half of full-scale war, Ukraine was able to return less than 400 children. At the same time, Russia claims to have "evacuated" 744,000 Ukrainian children.
