Russian Ambassador To Be Summoned To U.S. Senate To Testify On War Crimes In Ukraine

The meeting will be devoted to the removal of Ukrainian children from the occupied territories by Russia.

A bipartisan group of U.S. senators intends to summon the Russian ambassador to Washington, Alexander Darchiev, to the Senate to hear his testimony in a war crimes case involving the abduction of Ukrainian children. Senators Lindsey Graham (Republican, South Carolina) and Brian Schatz (Democrat, Hawaii) told The Hill that they are preparing a hearing before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State and Foreign Operations. The session will focus on Russia's removal of Ukrainian children from occupied territories and efforts to return them to their homeland.

Graham and Schatz, who hold senior positions on the committee, said they intend to formally invite Darkchiev to testify, but no date has yet been set for the hearing. Schatz said the Russian ambassador's appearance is important "to ensure accountability." "This is real brutality, and the U.S. government should help establish the facts and try to correct what was done," he said. The senator specified that an invitation to Darchiev would likely be extended, but acknowledged that it would be impossible to force a foreign diplomat to appear.

The Ukrainian Embassy in Washington has already begun preparations for the hearing and has expressed its willingness to participate.

Independent estimates suggest that Russia has removed at least 20,000 Ukrainian children, although Russian officials put the figure at around 700,000, the publication noted. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin and Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for war crimes related to the illegal deportation of children.

As The Hill recalls, the Ukrainian government and international organizations have been working throughout the war to find, rescue, and return abducted children. Researchers and human rights activists call Moscow's actions a "systematic campaign" to seize minors, strip them of their Ukrainian identity and then reeducate them in Russian families with military training to participate in the war against Ukraine, the publication writes.

The executive director of Yale's Nathaniel Raymond Laboratory told the BBC earlier of an expanding network of Russian "re-education" camps where children are being trained for combat. He called for maximum political pressure on Russia and for resources to be devoted to documenting crimes and finding abducted children.

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