detainees were forced to dig trenches near the Ukrainian-Russian Federation border, which has been on the front lines of heavy fighting between the armed groups and the Ukraine forces. A Donetsk Regional State Administration official was released from captivity in Horlivka on 10 July. He had been held since 26 June and said he had been tortured. Executions 47. Written records of execution orders authorized and signed personally by the ‘Commander-in-Chief’ of the armed groups, Igor Girkin (known as Strelkov), as well as protocols of hearings of a ‘military tribunal’ convicting people to death, were found in Slovyansk by a journalist on 7 July. The convictions were apparently of people associated with armed groups, and a common criminal. The HRMMU is verifying these records with relatives of the victims and a witness. Abduction of children 48. Children face particular hazards in the conflict zones. Orphans, many very young or with disabilities, in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions have faced particular difficulties, sometimes being used as pawns in the larger geo-political dispute. For example, in Donetsk, the chief medical officer reported difficulty in evacuating children from an orphanage in Kramatorsk city, because armed groups did not want to send Donbas children “to an enemy country, Ukraine” and wanted them to go to the Russian Federation. All 32 children were eventually evacuated safely to the Kharkiv region on 28-29 June thanks to the intervention of a Moscow-based NGO. In so doing, one of their representatives faced some personal danger, including being briefly detained by local armed groups on 25 June. 49. A group of 16 children and two chaperones, who were allegedly abducted and transferred to the Russian Federation territory on 12 June by armed groups, were returned back to Ukraine on 13 June.77 The Ombudspersons of Ukraine and the Russian Federation actively cooperated to facilitate the return of the children. 50. On 7 July, the UN in Ukraine received an official communication from the Government of Ukraine informing the UN of possible attempts by armed groups to forcefully transport 206 orphans from the Donetsk region to the Russian Federation, saying that it had informed the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Ukraine about the above-mentioned situation and called for the implementation of international obligations to guarantee the rights of children. 51. On 13 July, 54 children from a Maryinka orphanage were taken to Donetsk by armed groups after attempts to transfer the children to the Russian Federation were unsuccessful. This was in spite of intense pressure being placed on the directors of the orphanage. The children remain in Donetsk. Allegations of sexual violence 52. The HRMMU has received reports of allegations of sexual violence being committed against individuals by members of the armed groups It has also received allegations concerning a National Guard in Kramatorsk. The HRMMU is trying to verify such claims. 77 The Ministry of Foreign affairs (MFA) of Ukraine issued a statement on 12 June accusing the Russian Federation of having allowed the illegal transfer to its territory of 16 orphans. The children were reportedly part of a group of people abducted in the town of Snizhne by armed representatives of the “Donetsk People’s Republic”. According to the MFA, the children did not have proper permits to cross the border, and that in such conditions their transfer qualifies as an act of international abduction of children. The MFA sent a note verbale to the MFA of the Russian Federation requesting urgent measures to be taken to ensure the immediate return of the children in Ukraine and the prosecution of persons involved in the promotion of their illegal entry into the Russian Federation. 141 | P a g e