Kateryna Rashevska, an expert in international justice and legal analysis at the Regional Center for Human Rights, stated this during a U.S. Senate hearing on December 3.During the hearing, the expert reported on the large-scale deportation and re-education of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia from temporarily occupied territories.According to her, 12-year-old Misha from the occupied Donetsk region and 16-year-old Liza from occupied Simferopol were sent to the Songdowon camp in North Korea, 9,000 km from home, where they were taught to destroy Japanese militarists.Rashevska emphasized that Russia presents these deportations as 'evacuation' but fails to fulfill international obligations: it does not provide lists of children to the International Committee of the Red Cross, does not assess the grounds for their detention, and does not ensure voluntary return. "Instead, there is deportation, granting of Russian citizenship, adoption, and Russification," she noted.The expert also highlighted serious violations of children's rights: they are militarized, involved in political indoctrination, and boys aged 17 are forcibly conscripted into the Russian army. According to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, such actions constitute forced cultural assimilation. Children who resist are labeled as extremists or terrorists, and some are placed in 'social rehabilitation' centers or psychiatric institutions for forced treatment.Rashevska stressed that along with the physical and spiritual return of children, it is important to restore their sense of justice. She called on the U.S. and the international community to demand the immediate return of all abducted children through an independent international mechanism and not to recognize the occupied territories of Ukraine as Russian.BackgroundAccording to official data, about 20,000 children have been forcibly displaced to the territory of the Russian Federation, Belarus, or the occupied territories of Ukraine. Of these children, only about 1,300 have been returned to Ukraine, and 624 children have been declared deceased.The European Parliament also accuses Russia and Belarus, in addition to the illegal displacement of Ukrainian children, of horrific crimes: murder, sexual violence, sexual exploitation, forced Russification, forced militarization, and forced adoption.