The Insider claims that it has been able to identify a person involved in violence against children from the Kherson region who were taken to Evpatoria during the Russian occupation of the
region. According to the publication, this is a former employee of the disbanded Ukrainian special unit "Berkut," Valery Astakhov.
On March 23, 17 children from the Kherson and Kharkiv regions returned to Ukraine, who were taken deep into the occupied territories or to Russia during the Russian occupation.
One of the returned teenagers, 16-year-old Vitaliy, told journalists about the conditions in which the children lived in Russia. In particular, he reported physical punishments inflicted on children who admitted to supporting Ukraine. According to the boy, such children were beaten "with some kind of iron stick" at the "Dream" camp in Evpatoria. He also mentioned the name of the officer involved in the beatings - Astakhov.
The Insider journalist Tatyana Popova showed the teenager a photograph of Valery Astakhov. The boy identified him. It is not reported how the publication was able to establish Astakhov's identity.
The Insider writes that Astakhov was involved in "events on the Maidan from the side of the forces of [former President of Ukraine] Viktor Yanukovych." According to the "Peacemaker" database website, Astakhov served in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Evpatoria, and after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, he became a citizen of Russia and an employee of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.
In 2014, Valery Astakhov took residents of Sloviansk, including 21 children, to annexed Crimea. In its note on this, "Kommersant" called Astakhov a representative of the administration of Evpatoria. The Insider believes that this is the same person involved in violence against Ukrainian children.
According to the "Children of War" portal, since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, more than 16,000 minors have been forcibly taken out of Ukraine.
In mid-March, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Children's Rights Commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of the illegal deportation of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia. Photo by Anton Holoborodko, Wikimedia commons.