In the war against Ukraine, the Russian army uses children for military purposes, in particular, forcing them to perform military service, and also uses children as human shields or informants.
This was stated at a briefing by US Ambassador-at-Large for Monitoring and Combating Trafficking in Persons Cindy Dyer, Ukrinform reports.
During the State Department's report on human trafficking in the world for 2024, the ambassador pointed to disturbing trends related to Russia.
"We are tracking a number of disturbing trends in the case of Russia that are cause for concern. Obviously, one of them is Russia's war against Ukraine and the greater vulnerability of refugees fleeing this war, especially women and children. This is something that we pay particular attention to in our report on human trafficking," said Dyer.
"We are also closely monitoring the Russian military, particularly the use of children for military purposes in Ukraine. We have noticed that there are reports of children being forced to perform military duty, as well as to serve as informants and human shields," Dyer said.
Ukrainian children abducted by Russia are at extreme risk of human trafficking, and the State Department is calling on Russia to return all children to their families in Ukraine.