>> We have an update tonight on
a story we have been focusing
on.
Russia’s policy, taking ch
children, in effect, stealing
them.
That is war crime.
Russia is taking Ukrainian kids,
in many cases, trying to turn
them into Russian kids.
Which they call a humanitarian
gesture. We are getting details about
some video we saw from a rally
celebrating what Russia calls
defense of the father day.
There was a 15-year-old girl
from mariupol.
On this day, she was made to
read scripted words of thanks to
a Russian soldier.
>> Thank you for safe saving me,
my sister, and thousands of
children in mariupol.
I forget a little.
>> Don’t be shy.
Everyone give a hug.
Look.
It is the man who saved you all.
>> Not for nothing, his call
sign is angel.
>> Well, tonight we know more
about Anna and her story.
What have you learned?
>> Well, that this child,
Anderson, is several times over
a victim of this war.
Not only because, of course, she
lived through the siege of
mariupol that went on, remember,
for three long months.
Sheltering in basements with her
mother, brother, and sister as
the city was pounded by heavy
artillery.
She then lost her mother, a
single mother of three who had
done her best to raise her in
difficult conditions, as we
understand.
As she left the basement one day
to go out, she was killed.
Anna has been mourning her ever
since on-line.
We are able to see that on
social media.
She was taken to Moscow for this
very public display.
Not just many the hundreds of
thousands who were there,
Anderson, but, of course,
everyone who saw it aired across
Russia, but also in Ukraine.
What we understand since is that
this child has become abused
on-line by people angry at what
they says… What they saw.
Threatening to hang her.
It is an extraordinary story of
a child completely unprotected
and open to very public abuse
ever since that extraordinary
spectacle, Anderson.
>> Were you able to speak with
people who knew her in Ukraine?
>> We were.
We were able to track down and
remember they were talking about
occupied territories.
We simply don’t have much
access.
We did manage to track down a
couple of people.
One, a close family member who
told us more about her sad
history even before she made it
to that stage.
But also a woman who sheltered
with her for those many weeks in
the basement, saying, look, she
was a really nice girl who spent
time looking after her brother
and sister and who said she was
really shocked when she saw that
video.
She burst into tears, in fact,
talking about it, saying, look,
she may look older than 13.
This is a child.
And what’s being done to her is
Tim my completely inhumane,
Anderson.
>> I want to bring in Nathaniel
Raymond.
The team that produced the
report.
First of all, what is your
reaction to this specific case?
>> It is absolutely
stomach-turning.
Anderson, this is a girl who is
being used as a prop for
propaganda, for domestic Russian
political audience.
And that is a war crime.
Underneath the fourth Geneva
convention.
If use of children as props is a
violation of their special
protected status.
That, for me, Anderson, that is
a hostage video.
>> Even if Russia was
legitimately trying to protect
children in war Zones, there ar
are– there are protocols for
how children are to be treated.
>> The Geneva convention,
basically, a user’s manual for
Russia about how to move kids
during armed conflict.
They not only didn’t do what’s
in the manual.
They did opposite day and did
everything exactly the way they
shouldn’t.
What does that mean?
Well, that is a war crime and
potentially a crime against
humanity.
As the vice president and the
secretary of state said in the
past week.
>> Why are they doing this?
What are they doing in.
>> There is three reasons why
they are doing.
This one is a broader project
that they call ruseification.
They are trying to return
children from eastern Ukraine
home as pro-Russian.
>> They say there is no Ukraine.
Ukraine has been part of Russia:
>> Exactly.
And this is straight out of the
playbook from cold war soviet
union days under Stalin.
They are using many of the same
facilities from soviet union.
Political education called the
pioneer camps.
The second thing that is going
on here is really an attempt to
rebrand an invasion that is
failing.
And to present to a Russian
audience, basically, propaganda
that we are saving these kids
from purported Nazis.
The third thing what is
happening here which for me is
what keeps me up at night, is
they are gaining leverage
potentially.
You know, people ask me all the
time, what is the worst thing
that could happen to Ukraine?
A nuclear strike?
Nato intervention?
>> No. The worst thing has already
happened.
They took the kids.
>> Melissa, what have you
learned about these camps where
these children are being held?
>> Really harrowing tales that
we are hearing from parents who
are desperately trying to find
their children.
There is a website that has been
created here in Ukraine.
Children of war.
It is updated daily as parents
reach out, put pictures of their
missing children up in the hope
that somehow they can be found.
This is extraordinarily
difficult.
Getting to the other side of
that border, finding the
children to begin with in these
camps. Bear in mind, Anderson, a lot of
these parents, they are the
children that got lost in the
war.
They found themselves on the
wrong side of the border.
They were sent to camps or put
up for adoption.
There were also children who
were sent by Ukrainian parents
in good faith.
They were encouraged to do so
because this was a two-week,
free holiday by the sea
sometimes.
They were encouraged to go by
their teachers, their classmates
were going.
Parents thought they were doing
their children a favor.
Send them off to these camps and
haven’t heard from them since or
if they have been lucky enough
to hear from them, haven’t been
able to get them back.
Once they are there and we know
a bit about what goes on with
them, but also because Russia
makes no secret of this,
Anderson.
They publicize these videos
showing what goes on in these
The kind of activities you would camps.
expect in a normal summer camp
but also Russian language
lessons.
The teaching of the Russian
national anthem.
The singing daily of the Russian
national anthem.
>> Right.
It is indoctrination.
>> The revised history they are
forced into.
>> Have you seen anything like
this? >> This has been the most
overwhelming immediate response
to human rights reporting that I
have either seen or been
involved in.
Since the report has come out,
we have had statements from the
president, from other senior
officials.
But we have had sanctions on
four of the officials in our
report.
By the United States and three
from the European union.
For me, the response which has
been most telling is what’s come
out of the Kremlin.
They have doubled down on this
program.
