Russian officer linked to Bucha killings adopts abducted Ukrainian child

Ukrainian children bear the brunt of the war. The United Nations has cautioned that thousands of Ukrainian children have been abducted and then transported deep into Russia since the outbreak of the war.

Reports from October 2022 revealed that Maria Lvova-Belova, the Russian Commissioner for Children's Rights, adopted an uprooted Ukrainian child transported from Mariupol to Russia. Afterward, Lvova-Belova specified that Russian officials took 31 Ukrainian children from Mariupol to Russia.

Over 16 thousand Ukrainian children have been taken by Russians. Of them, only around 300 have managed to reunite with their families. In the past, we reported Russian officials proposing monetary incentives to "adoptive" families willing to accommodate these displaced Ukrainian children.

Russian military officer - Viktor Filonov - has recently decided to adopt a child. This information is particularly shocking, considering his alleged role in the killing of civilians in Ukraine.

As highlighted by the Nexta profile on platform X (formerly Twitter), seven-year-old Oleg, who was moved from Donbas in 2022 after a period in an orphanage, has been adopted by Filonov's family.

It should be noted that in Ukraine, Filonov is under suspicion for purported involvement in Bucha civilian killings. The 32-year-old officer is part of the 234th regiment, affiliated with the 76th Pskov Airborne Assault Division, which had been positioned in Bucha.

Russian forces occupied Bucha and nearby towns near Kyiv in the early stages of the 2022 invasion but retreated from the area at the end of March and the beginning of April. Following their withdrawal, civilians' mass graves and bodies bearing signs of torture were discovered. Eyewitnesses recount incidences of rape and deliberate civilian killings by the Russian soldiers.