THE CRIME: A SYSTEM BUILT TO ERASE A GENERATION
Russia’s forced deportation of Ukrainian children is not an accidental byproduct of war.
It is a deliberate system, spanning throughout 57 Russian regions, designed to:
- Remove Ukrainian children from their families
- Erase their identity and language
- Recast them as Russians
- Militarize them And ultimately — use them as tools in Russia’s future wars
This isn’t speculation. It’s documented by the International Criminal Court, the UN, the Council of Europe, EU institutions, investigators, human rights lawyers, and the survivors themselves.
The numbers are staggering:
- 19,546+ kidnapped and forcibly deported or transferred
- Over 1 million Ukrainian children currently trapped under Russian control
- Nearly 700 killed,
- 2,000+ injured,
- 2,245 missing
- Only 1,850 returned
Each statistic is a child torn from home, identity, safety, and family.
And despite an international outcry — Russia continues.
WHAT HAPPENED AT THE UN THIS WEEK
At a special UN special session hearing and several high-level parliamentary hearings in Canada and the United States, global leaders and investigators issued the clearest warning yet:
Russia is committing mass abduction, forced transfer, illegal adoption, and militarization of Ukrainian children — all of which constitute war crimes and, under international law, fall within the legal definition of genocide.
Forty countries, together with the EU and Council of Europe, demanded:
- Immediate and unconditional return of all Ukrainian children
- Full access for international monitors
- Restoration of true identities
- An end to forced citizenship, indoctrination, and militarization
For the first time, the world said plainly:
This is not just a humanitarian crisis — it is a grave security threat.
TESTIMONY FROM THE FRONTLINES OF INVESTIGATION
“Russia’s War Against Ukrainian Children: The Crime the World Can No Longer Ignore”
North Korea: The darkest discovery yet
Human rights lawyer Kateryna Rashevska delivered one of the most alarming revelations:
In this photo, you can see 12-year-old Misha from occupied Donetsk, and 16-year-old Lisa from occupied Simferopol.
They were sent to the Songdoon camp in North Korea, 9,000 kilometers from home… Russification and militarization caused severe trauma and violated children’s dignity.
At 17, boys received draft notices into the Russian army.
The goal is genocidal:
to make Ukrainians kill each other.”— Kateryna Rashevska, U.S. Senate Hearing
Children — Ukrainian children — disappeared into a country with no access, no oversight, no return pathways. A black hole.
And North Korea is only one destination.
Ukrainian families report their children being sent to:
- Siberia
- The Russian Far East
- The Kuril Islands
- Remote republics like Mari El
- Camps spanning 21 Russian regions
Always far enough to sever any hope of rescue.
Torture and indoctrination: “This is evil in its purest form”
At the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, Republican Representative Michael McCaul shared horrifying testimony from the documentary Children in the Fire:
“They show a child in a prison where adults use electrodes to shock them under their fingernails and genitals… No child should ever have to endure that barbarism.
– Rep. Michael McCaul
I’ve met many survivors — they spoke of torture and forced indoctrination.
As a father of five, I can’t imagine my children being kidnapped and indoctrinated against the United States. Imagine how Americans would feel if this happened to them.”
His message was not political. It was human.
Russia is torturing children to break them — and rebuild them.
Yale Humanitarian Research Lab: The breakthrough that exposed the system
Perhaps the most important testimony came from Nathaniel Raymond, a veteran war crimes investigator whose work helped produce the ICC arrest warrants for Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova.
He described the investigation that uncovered Russia’s machinery of child theft:
“We were tasked with investigating reports that Russia was systematically taking children after the full-scale invasion. The breakthrough came when mayors and local officials inside Russia posted selfies with Ukrainian children — with the location settings on.”
That accidental carelessness allowed analysts to map:
- 210 Russian facilities
- stretching from the Black Sea to the Pacific,
- closer to Japan and Alaska than to Kyiv.
Raymond’s team used:
- high-resolution satellite imagery
- open-source intelligence
- Russian regional government posts
- adoption databases
- leaked videos
- transportation logs
Their findings:
“We assessed at least 6,000 children in camps by the start of 2023. Our internal estimate of total abducted children is closer to 35,000 — not 19,500.”
He broke down the four groups of abducted children:
- Children taken to Russian ‘patriotic reeducation’ camps
- Children seized from the battlefield after Russia killed their parents
- Children separated during filtration after Mariupol fell
- Children stolen from institutions and hidden on Russian adoption websites
One of the most chilling discoveries came from something seemingly mundane: wallpaper.
My analyst noticed teal and yellow wallpaper behind a child in a Russian ‘orphan’ photo.
That same wallpaper appeared in Ukrainian news footage from an institution that had been emptied during occupation.
Russia wasn’t hiding the children — they were hiding them in plain sight.”
Half of the identified children were trafficked into Russian families together with their siblings, making reunification nearly impossible.
And then came his final warning:
“Our funding has been terminated. We have 4–6 weeks left. It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve this mission.”
Nathaniel Raymond, Yale HRL
RESCUES: THE CHILDREN WHO MADE IT HOME
Seven more children were returned this week through Ukraine’s Bring Kids Back UA initiative.
Among them was 9-year-old Inna:
- Severely injured by Russian shelling at age 6
- Taken first to Belgorod
- Then to a Moscow-region children’s center
- Pressured not to return
- Prepared for placement with a Russian family
- Her relatives spent years not knowing if she was alive
She is one of just 1,850 returned.
Tens of thousands remain trapped.
INTERNATIONAL ACTION: THE WORLD SPEAKS, FINALLY
The resolution mandates:
The UN General Assembly Resolution: “Return of Ukrainian Children”
92 countries voted in favor of a historic demand:
Russia must immediately and unconditionally return all Ukrainian children.
UN-led coordination for the return Engagement with Russia for information access Full reporting to member states Monitoring of identity manipulation, forced adoption, and indoctrination
But Russia and 11 others voted against — openly opposing the return of kidnapped children.
Statements The World Should Hear
Senator Dick Blumenthal said what must be said:
“This is genocide – the goal is to erase identity. Russia must be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism and have assets seized”
U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal at the U.S. Senate Hearing on the abduction of Ukrainian children by Russia
Maksym Maksymov, Head of Bring Kids Back UA
“Identity erasure is designed to create a future population in the occupied territories that is politically aligned with Russia and disconnected from Ukraine”,
Maksym Maksymov, Head of Bring Kids Back UA
“The forced transfer & deportation of children from occupied territory is a grave breach of international humanitarian law and can constitute a war crime. Bringing Ukrainian children back home must not be treated as a secondary humanitarian concern.”
– Olga Stefanishyna
Ambassador of Ukraine to the U.S.
Joint statment from The Nordics:
“We demand the immediate, safe and unconditional return of all Ukrainian children.”
WHAT THIS IS: CALL IT BY ITS NAME
Forced deportation of children
- erasure of identity
- forced citizenship
- indoctrination militarization
- illegal adoption
All these points = GENOCIDE, under Article II of the Genocide Convention.
And the world knows it.
The evidence is no longer deniable — or ignorable.
WHAT I WANT THE WORLD MUST UNDERSTAND
Ukraine is not just fighting for land.
It is fighting for its children — its future — its right to exist.
Russia knows this. That’s why children have been a target since day one.
Every kidnapped child is a message:
“Your identity is ours. Your future is ours. Your children are ours.”
This is why russia wants them. Not because they cares about them — but because:
- You cannot rebuild a nation without your children
- You cannot preserve a culture if its next generation has been erased
- You cannot defend yourself when your children have been turned into your enemy
What Russia is doing is not new.
- The Soviet Union did it in the Baltics.
- The Russian Empire did it to Crimean Tatars, Poles, Circassians.
Ukraine is once again experiencing a recycled version of imperial theft — with modern tools and global indifference.
The testimonies from investigators, lawyers, senators, and survivors are unbearable to hear.
But this pain must be seen. Because silence is complicity.
Every Ukrainian child must come home.
There is no negotiation on that.
Not now, not ever.
Ine in Ukraine 