The Harrowing Vanishing of Orphaned Teens Trapped in Russia

BERLIN, Germany—The mother of Veronika Trubitsyna, 13, and Anastasiia Trubitsyna, 15, died one hour before Russian police forced the sisters to pack their few belongings and move into a nearby orphanage. Without any legal guardians in Russia, they were told they would become wards of the state.

For nine months, the sisters were trapped in a system that sought to feed them pro-war propaganda and encourage them to become Russian citizens. Now out of Russia’s grasp, Veronika spoke with The Daily Beast about the time she spent in Russia. She is one of the thousands of children who have been forcibly transferred to Russia since the invasion of Ukraine began in February last year, and one of the few who have escaped.

On March 17, The International Criminal Court (ICC) filed an official warrant for the arrest of Vladimir Putin and Russia's commissioner for children's rights, Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova. The two have been accused of war crimes related to the deportation of children from Ukraine and occupied territories to Russia since February last year. But the ICC has no criminal jurisdiction of its own, so as long as Putin and Lvova-Belova remain in Russia and its allied countries, the likelihood the two will be arrested is slim.

Read more at The Daily Beast.