Long road home through pain and loss: Ukraine fights to bring back children deported by Russia

Contents

1. The scale of the crime that has lasted more than a decade
2. “Ukraine no longer exists. Your parents don’t need you”
3. Loss of speech and surgery without anesthesia: stories of those who returned
4. Legal qualification of Russia’s actions
5. Europe will help return Ukrainian children

Espreso found out what efforts are needed to rescue young Ukrainians from Russian captivity, what they tell about their stay on the territory of Russia, and how the international community helps Ukraine in this.

The scale of the crime that has lasted more than a decade

The abduction and forced relocation of Ukrainian children took on a massive scale during Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. However, Russia's occupation administration began working in this direction immediately after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2014. On October 13, 2014, in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, Russia announced the program “Train of Hope. Crimea”, under which Ukrainian orphans and children deprived of parental care were given to Russian families.

In 2019, Vladimir Putin signed a decree that ensured a simplified acquisition of Russian citizenship for people from occupied territories. This gave new impetus to the abduction and removal of young Ukrainians. Another decree, concerning the simplification of the procedure for acquiring Russian citizenship specifically for children, Putin signed in May 2022.

The abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children became especially massive after the start of the full-scale war. Russia did not hide the scale of the crime, on the contrary, it even boasted about it. In April 2022, Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, stated that within a few months of the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, more than 119,000 Ukrainian children were transported to Russia. In the summer of 2023, Russia's State Duma reported the deportation of 700,000 children. These numbers approximately coincide with the data from Ukraine. The platform “Children of War” informs about 744,000 children deported from Ukraine. And in total, about 1.6 million Ukrainian children are under Russian control.

“Ukraine no longer exists. Your parents don’t need you”

Russians abduct children after their parents are killed or arrested, often under the guise of “summer camps” or even medical treatment, sometimes fabricating diagnoses. They also take children from Ukrainian state institutions in temporarily occupied territories. In many cases, parents are stripped of their parental rights on fabricated grounds, or they are simply separated from their children during filtration procedures in special camps.

Children living in frontline areas and places where Russian troops are stationed are most often abducted. One of the most common manipulations, according to Save Ukraine foundation lawyer Myroslava Kharchenko, is the narrative of an impending Ukrainian offensive, allegedly involving American mercenaries who will rape girls and women. As a result, women and children often flee alongside Russian troops, eventually ending up in shelters, from which human rights activists work to rescue them.

Once abducted, the children are subjected to propaganda and russification. The primary objective is to erase their national identity. Ukraine's human rights ombudsman's office has documented numerous cases where Russia’s representatives beat children for identifying as Ukrainians.

“And they also tell the children that the Ukrainian state won’t take care of them, that they must learn the Russian language, history, and anthem, and only then will they be able to make their lives bearable. We had cases where children were returned home, and they were convinced that Ukraine no longer exists,” said Myroslava Kharchenko.

Abducted children, like Ukrainian prisoners of war, are placed in an informational void. They are fed false narratives, led to believe that no one in Ukraine cares for them. They are urged to forget their parents and are falsely reassured that their families have abandoned them.

The Russians do not conceal the use of psychological violence and "brainwashing" against children. For example, Maria Lvova-Belova, the Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights in Russia and a war crimes suspect, cynically claimed that, despite everything, Ukrainian children "eventually fell in love with Russia."

“At first, the children spoke negatively about the [Russian] president, said all sorts of nasty things, and sang the Ukrainian anthem. There was this initial negativity, but eventually, it turned into love for Russia,” she said, referring to children from the destroyed city of Mariupol.

In addition, to exert psychological influence on Ukrainian children, the Russian youth military organization "Yunarmiya" began operating in Mariupol in 2022. Later, similar branches were established in other Ukrainian cities under occupation. Children expressing pro-Ukrainian views were persecuted. In 2022, Russia arrested teenagers in Mariupol for singing the Ukrainian anthem. In schools in the temporarily occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, children were forced to wear military uniforms and write greeting and thank-you letters to the occupying troops.

Loss of speech and surgery without anesthesia: stories of those who returned

The register of abducted children in Ukraine is maintained by the National Information Bureau. Data is received from people whose relatives have gone missing or been displaced, from the Human Rights Commissioner, and law enforcement agencies. As of now, according to the Children of War platform, almost 20,000 deported and forcibly displaced children have been identified. Each return story turns into a real special operation involving intermediary countries, and the biggest obstacle is the unwillingness of Russians to cooperate.

“If we’re talking about more than 19,000 officially abducted children, Russia recognizes only 500. Finding and returning each child is a huge challenge for Ukraine. First of all, the children are frightened and afraid to return home because they’re told that the SBU (Ukraine's Security Service - ed.) will open a case against them and imprison them,” said Myroslava Kharchenko.

The NGO Save Ukraine is dedicated to the search and rescue of children from Russian territory and Russian-occupied areas. As of March this year, the organization has successfully returned 579 children. Another initiative focused on the return of Ukrainian children deported and forcibly displaced by Russia is Bring Kids Back UA. Its director, Daria Zarivna, reports that they have managed to return 1,200 children.

It was Save Ukraine, along with the President of Ukraine’s initiative Bring Kids Back UA, that facilitated the return of 5-year-old Ivan on March 27 this year — the son of a Ukrainian soldier. The searches and threats with weapons from Russian soldiers traumatized the boy so severely that he stopped speaking. For over a year, he couldn’t even say the word "mom." When Russian soldiers began threatening the family with execution for refusing to obtain a Russian passport, Ivan’s mother and grandmother decided to escape with him.

Another child rescued was Svitlanka, who was only one year old when her father was taken by Russians for interrogation, threatened, tortured, and then the family was forced to leave their home. After relocating, they were searched again, cut off from communication, and had all their documents taken. When the Russian-installed authorities discovered that the girl still had a Ukrainian birth certificate, they began threatening the mother, saying the child would be taken away.

Another story of a mother and child: “Olha lived under occupation with her daughter for nearly three years. Each day was a struggle. She constantly had to shield her child from danger, endure numerous searches, and scavenge for food and medicine to avoid starvation and disease. Despite the hardships, her daughter grew. And as she got older, the mother realized they could no longer wait. They had to escape,” – she was eventually rescued by representatives of Save Ukraine.

Activists helped 13-year-old Oksana reunite with her mother. Her father was deeply concerned that the Russians might take his daughter at one of the checkpoints. The Save Ukraine team had to find the safest routes to evacuate her.

Twelve-year-old Illia, from Mariupol, has been freed from occupation for over a year. In his short life, he has endured unimaginable pain. During the relentless Russian shelling of his hometown, his mother was killed under the rubble, and the boy suffered multiple shrapnel wounds.

The invaders took Illia to a hospital in Donetsk, where he endured even more physical and emotional pain. A surgery to remove shrapnel from his leg was performed without anesthesia. The adults mocked him, telling him he should no longer say “Glory to Ukraine” but instead “Glory to Ukraine as part of Russia.” They also forced him to write in Russian, as reported by the President’s initiative to return Ukrainian children – Bring Kids Back UA.

“Before the war, I had a wonderful mom, good friends, and my city was great. At first, everything was quiet, but when the explosions started, I realized it was war. One day, we went to a neighbor’s house because a missile hit ours, making it uninhabitable. Then, that house was hit too. I was injured, and my mom was hit in the head. I knew she was dead when the neighbor came over to check her pulse. I held it together as best as I could, but mentally, it hurt far more than the injury I had. The neighbor buried my mom in our yard. They didn’t just kill my mom – they didn’t give anyone in Mariupol a chance to survive,” the boy recalled.

A few days later, Russian soldiers came and took him. In Donetsk, Illia underwent numerous operations to remove shrapnel. Now, his body is covered in scars, and the surgery was done without anesthesia.

Through close cooperation with the boy’s grandmother Olena, Illia was returned from deportation.

Legal qualification of Russia’s actions

Raising children of war within a foreign nation and culture with the aim of erasing their national identity is classified as genocide. According to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide is defined as any act committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group. The list includes killing, causing serious bodily harm, deliberately creating living conditions intended to bring about the group’s physical destruction in whole or in part, imposing measures to prevent births, and forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. The latter – the forced re-education of Ukrainian children as Russians – bears all the hallmarks of genocide.

The UN has confirmed the deportation of Ukrainian children, calling such actions war crimes. On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for Russian leader Vladimir Putin and the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova. Both are accused of war crimes – specifically, the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian civilians, particularly children. In response, Russia cut all ties with the ICC and declared the court’s judges and prosecutor wanted.

Since the Kremlin does not recognize the jurisdiction of the Hague court, the only current consequence for Putin is his restricted international mobility. Countries that have ratified the Rome Statute, and thus recognize the ICC’s jurisdiction, are required to arrest the Russian leader if he enters their territory. There are about sixty such countries.

In addition, French lawyer Emmanuel Daoud, on whose petition the ICC issued the arrest warrant for Putin, emphasized that such warrants are issued once and for all. These crimes have no statute of limitations.

Europe will help return Ukrainian children

“The abduction of Ukrainian children is a horrific crime, and the United Kingdom will do everything possible to bring them home. It is a stark reminder that any peace settlement must include holding Russia accountable for its disgraceful actions,” said UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on March 27 this year after meeting with a Ukrainian delegation.

Despite Ukraine having unconditional support in Europe, it faces a shift in political direction in the United States, which could also affect both the return of the children and the documentation of Russian war crimes. Ukrainian child-return initiatives had collaborated with USAID programs, the funding of which has been cut by official Washington.

Additionally, the U.S. State Department ceased funding for the Yale University program that conducted research and recorded data on abducted Ukrainian children. Some media reported that this data might be deleted. However, the U.S. State Department initially officially denied that the data would be erased, and later The Washington Post wrote that the Trump administration had temporarily reversed its decision to shut down the Conflict Observatory program, which tracks children abducted by Russia. Funding will continue for six more weeks, during which time the database is to be transferred to Europol, allowing European law enforcement to continue the investigation.

Meanwhile, one of the U.S. negotiators acting as a mediator between Ukraine and Russia, U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, stated that the return of Ukrainian children taken by Russia could become “one of the confidence-building measures” between the parties involved in the negotiations.