The mass abduction of children is a crime constituting genocide. Ukraine has identified 19,553 minors sent to Russia against their will. This led on March 17, 2023, to the International Criminal Court issuing a warrant for the autocrat Vladimir Putin and his Russian Children's Rights Commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova. The Kremlin's propaganda began claiming that Ukrainian children were being relocated "for their safety," attempting to disguise a war crime as a supposed "humanitarian gesture."
The U.S. Department of State still has on its website a response to Putin's indictment: "The Kremlin seems determined to erase Ukraine's existence as a state by trying to steal its future." "Russia uses forced relocation, reeducation, and in some cases, adoption of Ukrainian children as key components of its systematic efforts to suppress the identity, history, and culture of Ukraine."
Since the beginning of the invasion, one of Putin's alleged reasons for attacking Ukraine was to protect Russian speakers. The reality is that in the occupied areas, it has been his troops who have persecuted Ukrainians, banned their language, and devoted significant resources to reeducating children in military-style camps to teach them to hate what they were before the invasion. Putin is not only intent on Russifying Ukraine but also on de-Ukrainianizing it.
Yesterday, during the United Nations General Assembly, Ursula von der Leyen delivered a speech titled Restoring Childhood and Humanity, stating that the forced abduction and relocation of Ukrainian minors by Russia is "the most painful horror" and an attempt to erase Ukraine's identity.
Not all are orphans. Russia has deported and continues to deport Ukrainian children to Russia or territories controlled by Russia without their consent, especially to screening camps where they were separated from their parents, whom they never saw again. Many were lied to, told that their parents did not want them, and used for propaganda purposes. Many were handed over to Russian families, already with the citizenship of the occupiers. The documentation on these cases is extensive and conclusive.
The reeducation that many Ukrainian minors receive in Russia or in occupied territories combines ideological Russification with the suppression of Ukrainian identity. In practice, the Russian curriculum and language of instruction are imposed, Ukrainian education is punished or blocked, and official manuals and stories are disseminated presenting the war as "liberation" and labeling Ukraine as a "neo-Nazi" country. Organizations like Human Rights Watch have documented this forced replacement of the educational system and the ban on Ukrainian; the UN also describes a "patriotic and military education" aimed at preparing minors for military or civil service under the Russian Federation.
In addition, there is militarization: in a network of over 200 facilities (camps, cadet schools, bases, and youth centers) identified by the Yale HRL organization, children participate in close-order drill training, basic weapon handling, tactical first aid, and even drone manufacturing/assembly; some of these activities are channeled through youth structures like Yunarmiya or the Pioneers Movement (a Soviet-origin organization). The research details that dozens of locations provide systematic military training and a significant proportion run continuous patriotic indoctrination programs. Russia denies the facts and presents them as "recreation" or humanitarian evacuations, but evidence collected by Yale HRL, international media, and NGOs shows an organized and expansive pattern.
Von der Leyen remembered the over 1.5 million children growing up under the shadow of "forced Russification" in occupied areas. "We will host a high-level international summit to place these children at the forefront of the global agenda," promised the Commission President.
Additionally, Von der Leyen announced that the EU will provide around 200 million euros for school meals in Ukraine, co-finance over 10 million with UNICEF for the reception, recovery, and education of returning minors, and support the Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office so that families see that "justice is served."