Vladimir Putin celebrating his army.
The special guests this year, children
bused in from Ukraine's
occupied territories.
Thank you Uncle Yuri for saving me,
my sister
and hundreds of thousands of children
in Mariupol.
I forget too little.
Now, don't be shy.
Go hug Uncle Yuri.
Did everyone give a hug?
Look, it's the man who saved you all.
But who is Anya?
By tracking down family members
too scared to speak on air.
An exclusive
CNN investigation
has found the story of 13 year old
Anna now Manko or Anna, as she's known,
who was brought specially
from her foster family in Mariupol
for the event in Moscow.
And behind the propaganda on his own
bewildered view
posted to her social media
reaches, what could he do?
Look at all the rows,
she says,
before being told where she will stand
and what she will say
It was a
year ago that
Anna's hometown of Mariupol was pounded.
Devastating, heavy artillery
forcing its population underground
to basements like this one,
a refuge
shared for much of the three month
long siege by Anna.
Her family
and Katrina postive it
who is now in Germany.
She couldn't
believe her eyes
when she saw her on stage.
We were like a family.
We saved ourselves, saved our lives.
But in early April on, his mother, Olga,
left the basement
and was killed by Russian shelling,
by
honest grief for her mother,
like so much else, innocent
he shared online.
I want to be with you, she writes.
By the end of the siege, Ana
and her siblings were separated
by their mother's death.
Anya sent to a foster family in Mariupol.
Karim Khan,
the head of the International
Criminal Court,
believes that through its propaganda,
Moscow risks incriminating itself
regarding Anna.
It's very troubling and
the Rome Statute,
and, in fact, the Geneva Conventions
make it clear regarding how children
must be
treated by occupying powers.
The law is present to many think
it's an optional extra
CNN has reached out to Russian officials
for comment on the children
featured in Putin's rally last week.
Moscow has not responded.
But for all the tragedy of Anna's
short life
so far,
the propaganda event has brought her
fresh troubles, the daily
and violent
threats under her adolescent posts.
Anya, don't be shy.
When we celebrate Mariupol again,
you'll be hanging from a post down town,
just one of the threats made,
but a reflection of
so much more of the abuse
young Anna has received.
She's not just concerned.
We need to stay human.
She is a child
who survived the war, famine,
and lost her mother
She's small.
Even if she looks like an adult,
she is a child of
but children,
as symbols
of the future
play an important part
in Orwellian displays of loyalty
to Moscow,
like this one held in occupied
Mariupol last week.
Two visions of childhood.
One carefree, the other twisted.
Melissa Bell, CNN.
He will get some perspective now
from the chief prosecutor
at the International Criminal Court.
You just saw there
and Melissa Bell's report.
Karim Khan has more than 25
years experience
as international criminal
law and human rights attorney.
Mr. Khan, you are in Ukraine.
Last time we spoke together in Lviv
about a year ago.
Can you talk about what you're doing
on the ground
there now, what your focus is
Well, as we said
when we last spoke, Anderson,
that Ukraine is a crime scene.
We've been looking
at a variety of locations
from a care homes on the front lines
of Ukraine
that were occupied
by the Russian Federation
to power stations
that were targeted
to residential buildings
that have been partly destroyed,
trying to find out what took place,
what crimes,
if any, have been committed
and who's responsible.
We showed just some video there of you
I think you called a care home.
I think it's
like an orphanage
in southern
southern Ukraine near the front lines.
What were you looking at there
or what were you looking
for?
Well, we've seen from many sources
a number of allegations that children
have been taken from Ukraine
and forcibly transferred to be deported
into the Russian Federation.
And this was one of the homes concerned.
It's a beautiful site.
In fact, you see empty cots,
children's shoes and clothing
often donated by well-wishers.
In in cupboards and on shelves
and on the walls.
You say
paintings of children
that we see in our own
homes, in bedrooms
around the world of children
that are proud to display the art
and then photographs
of really Christmas past.
Sometimes children dressed up
in nativity plays
and that's in very sharp contrast,
the joy, the environment to the silence
of what is otherwise now a empty carcass
of a building
with the toys and the playthings
of children.
But no children at all
because the allegation is
they've been taken
into the Russian Federation
away from their
families and loved ones
and the familiar environment
that they'd grown up in.
So that that's what you believe
may have happened
to the kids at the place
you were today, that
they've actually been taken into Russia
or somewhere
Well, this is the allegations
that we're looking into.
We've had it from multiple sources
that there may be a
pattern of conduct that children
from the areas
occupied by Russian Federation forces
have been taken into the territory
of the Russian Federation,
not given to neutral third countries,
not given
or sent
to other parts of Ukraine,
but taken into the Russian Federation.
So we have been
investigating this,
and I went to the front line
yesterday, in fact,
and went to one of these homes,
and I wanted to see it for myself.
You also, I understand, met
with President Zelensky
also I believe Attorney
General Merrick Garland,
who made a surprise trip there.
Can you talk at all
about what that was like, what
the focus of the meeting was
Yes. Well, it's now public.
I mean, live at the moment
and presence Alinsky
and the government of Ukraine
hosted a conference
a really historic conference, in fact,
in the middle of a war
called entitled United for Justice.
And it was really to focus
on the importance of the rule of law,
even as bullets are flying
and bombs are landing
and wreaking tremendous havoc.
And Attorney General Garland was
attended as well.
And the United States is supporting
Ukraine in terms of the rule of law.
And also,
I had the opportunity
of meeting
the attorney general for the first time,
and I'm looking forward
to see whether or not we can also get
some tangible assistance
from the United States,
because since December,
the law has changed
that the United States can support
the International Criminal Court
in relation
to the investigations
we're conducting in Bahrain.
So we can get to the truth
and I want to see whether or not that
promise of assistance
can be rendered tangible
as soon as possible.
I mean, you've had
an extraordinary career
looking at war
crimes and
crimes against humanity,
international crimes.
It's very rare, though, and
you and I have talked about this
in the past.
It's very rare
to have an active investigations
like this going on in the midst of a war.
I mean, often it's years after a war
has ended, decades even
Absolutely.
And I think
even today's conference
was absolutely historic
because we had the London agreement
in August 1945
that discussed the importance of trials
that would come at the end
of the Second World War
and gave rise to Nuremberg
But here we are.
Yesterday, I was on the front line
and there were drones in the sky.
There were shells landing
in different parts of Ukraine.
And
I think it is to the tremendous credit
of the Ukrainian authorities
that they are talking
about the rule of law
and what we need to do
as the International Criminal Court
is to make sure
that our own investigations
are independent,
credible and are based upon
evidence that will stand the
test of time. And I think
it does a lot of firsts in
this conflict, Anderson,
for good and bad.