DONETSK, July 24. /TASS/. Ukrainian intelligence services are trying to recruit children in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) to commit crimes and carry out sabotage attacks, DPR Senator Natalya Nikonorova said.

"The recruitment of kids to commit crimes and carry out all kinds of sabotage attacks is another important challenge. It is directly prohibited by Article 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, as well as by the Paris Principles aimed at preventing forced recruitment of children. We have long been aware of these criminal acts by the Kiev regime," the senator pointed out at a meeting of the parliamentary commission looking into the Kiev regime’s crimes against minors.

Nikonorova emphasized that the issue of Ukrainian intel agencies recruiting minors had been repeatedly brought up during the Minsk talks. However, Ukrainian representatives completely ignored those issues. "Instead of answering questions, they claimed that children were being illegally held in our republic and demanded that they be sent back," Nikonorova noted.

She added that in 2016, three underage saboteurs had been pardoned at the initiative of the DPR head. According to the senator, the three stayed in Russia.