US special advisor on disability rights hails The Independent’s Ukraine investigation: ‘Not an acceptable loss’

Sara Minkara says 18-month investigation into at least 500 people with disabilities being forcibly removed to into Russia and Russian-held territory is ‘important’ in highlighting impact of war on a vulnerable community

Russia Ukraine War (AP)

An 18-month investigation by The Independent uncovering fresh evidence of potential war crimes committed by Russia against Ukrainians with disabilities is a “really important” part of “creating more awareness, more visibility” of the devastating impact of the invasion on the disability community, a special advisor to the Biden administration has said.

Sara Minkara, the US State Department special advisor on international disability rights, heralded the three-part series which revealed that at least 500 people with disabilities, including children, have been forcibly removed to Russian-held territory and into Russia itself. In many instances, people have been held incommunicado, in squalid conditions, and even forced into adopting Russian passports in order to secure treatment or care.

The multi-part series also documented other potential crimes committed by Russian soldiers, including that disabled Ukrainians were used as human shields, and others were deprived of food and critical medicine, resulting in death.

Ms Minkara said the research was important as across the world the disability community feels that they are “an acceptable loss” in conflict, due to a lack of information and reporting.

“In the disability community, we say we’re an acceptable loss, and a big reason behind all of this is data collection and telling the story. When we don’t count persons with disabilities, we’re not counted then. I think that’s a really important point when you look at the crisis and the disability lens.”

She added that she wants to see a future where “society feels the cost and the loss by not including the disability community across all policymaking.”

“I think this reporting is really important for creating that awareness and mainstreaming this.”

Her comments echo remarks by Gerard Quinn, the UN’s special rapporteur on the rights of persons with disabilities until November, who has extensively worked on Ukraine. He said The Independent’s investigation was “an important step in a wider debate” and “paints a damning picture” of the vulnerabilities that people with disabilities face in the Ukraine war.

For 18 months, The Independent tracked the disappearance of at least 500 people with disabilities, ranging from children to the elderly. They were taken from facilities in occupied Ukraine by Russian officials, either deeper into Russian-held territory or Russia itself. The 500 only include the cases The Independent was able to independently verify, but Ukrainian officials believe that the true numbers could be in the thousands.

The cases, which took place between October 2022 and the summer of 2023, were verified through interviews with those who were illegally taken, family members of those who remain missing, staff members of the institutions targeted, and charities trying to locate missing people. The Independent also tracked official Russian Telegram groups of the occupation administration that have boasted of the attempts to move hundreds of people from institutions. We used open-source tools, like satellite imagery, to confirm alleged locations. Russia has denied breaking international law.

In many instances, the people taken were misled or lied to about what was happening. They were held incommunicado in squalid conditions and forced into adopting Russian passports in order to secure treatment or care.

I think this reporting is really important for creating that awareness and mainstreaming this

Sara Minkara, United States Special Advisor on International Disability Rights

The fate of the vast majority remains unknown, but there is evidence that some of the children have been sent to “re-education camps” to learn the Russian language, culture, and the Kremlin’s version of history. The targeting of people with disabilities, Ukrainian officials argue, is part of a broader and coordinated Russian effort to “annihilate the Ukrainian identity” and could amount to “ethnic cleansing.”

The Independent’s series hopes to spark a paradigm shift in attitudes towards people with disabilities both in Ukraine – where there are now tens of thousands of new amputees – and across the world’s conflicts, where international law and protections appear to be failing the most vulnerable.

Ms Minkara said people with disabilities in crisis are between two to four times more at risk, not because of their disabilities, but because systems around the world “are not thinking about us and our needs.”

“When a crisis happens, there is always a lag in the initial weeks, days, and months of the response in terms of evacuation, humanitarian assistance, and reaching out to the disability community,” she said.

“Bomb shelters are not accessible, evacuation buses are not accessible. There are challenges on the borders. We saw this in Ukraine, but you see this in every single crisis all over the world.”

The official number of people registered with disabilities in Ukraine is 2.7 million, but the United Nations estimates the true number to be more than double that.

The Russia's appointed administration in the occupied south of Ukraine shares images of people with disabilities they have removed from institutions in the southern region of Kherson (Telegram)

Tens of thousands live in institutions across the country where conditions have been described by United Nations experts as “appalling.”

The epidemic of boarding houses, orphanages, and residential homes is a devastating holdover from the Soviet Union where no support was given to families. Instead, they were encouraged to institutionalize their children with intellectual, physical, and psychosocial disabilities.

Many have lived their entire lives in these institutions often with little contact with their families—a system that disability rights advocates want to have dismantled as swathes of Ukraine are rebuilt.

Ms Minkara called on the world to make sure the disability community is an integral part of the reconstruction plan of Ukraine, particularly after a recovery conference was held in the German capital of Berlin last month. During the meeting of representatives from dozens of countries, over 6 billion euros worth of agreements were signed and pledged, including support for the reconstruction of critical infrastructure.

Ms Minkara urged every government leader “to support building a green and accessible Ukraine.”

“It’s a missed opportunity if we don’t look at the recovery reconstruction ensuring that across the board accessibility is baked in,” she added.

“Right now you hear a lot of words like sustainable Ukraine, green Ukraine. I would love for there always to be an accessible Ukraine too.”