Findings

Congress finds the following: (1) Since February 2022, elements of the Russian Federation have engaged in the systematic abduction and forcible transfer of thousands of Ukrainian children from temporarily occupied areas of Ukraine to the territory of the Russian Federation or to areas under Russian control, in a pattern that meets the definition of a severe form of trafficking in persons under section 103 of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. (2) These operations have been coordinated and facilitated by a network of Russian state actors—including Federal ministries, regional administrations, the Office of the Commissioner for Children’s Rights, and affiliated rehabilitation and patriotic education camps—as well as non-state actors, including segments of the Russian Orthodox Church and its subordinate dioceses and charitable foundations, and private adoption and foster networks operating in occupied Ukrainian territory, that together constitute transnational organized criminal activity. (3) The forced transfer, deportation, indoctrination, and re-education of these children is intended to erase their Ukrainian national identity and integrate them into Russian society, constituting both a war crime under international law and a continuing violation of the human rights of the victims and their families. (4) The network of state and non-state actors described in paragraph (2) has generated documented financial benefits from the forced transfer, placement, and illegal adoption of Ukrainian children, and the conditions created by these operations have been reported to facilitate the sex trafficking of displaced Ukrainian women and children by organized criminal networks operating in Russian-controlled territories, the proceeds of which flow to persons within the scope of section 4(c).