'Basically impossible to get them back': Russia's mass abduction of Ukrainian children is a war crime, say experts

[riversedge]

Source: the guardian




‘Basically impossible to get them back’: Russia’s mass abduction of Ukrainian children is a war crime, say experts

As territories shift and divide families, desperate parents are travelling to Russia to find their children, many of whom have been moved into military camps or orphanages


Ruchi Kumar Fri 27 Jun 2025 00.00 EDT

As many as 35,000 Ukrainian children are still missing and thought to be held in Russia or Russian-occupied territories, according to an American team of experts, with families saying they are being forced to take desperate and risky measures to try to rescue them.

As Russian forces began their invasion in February 2022, children were abducted from care homes, from the battlefield after the death of their parents, or under coercion directly from their families.

Russia has rejected demands for the children to be returned, with an official accusing Ukraine of “staging a show on the topic of lost children” during ceasefire talks in Turkey this month.

.................

..................

This is likely the largest child abduction since world war two – comparable to the Germanification of Polish children by the Nazis

Nathaniel Raymond

So far just 1,366 children have been returned or escaped back to Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian organisation Bring Kids Back. A team of experts at Yale University has estimated that as many as 35,000 children may be held in Russia and its occupied territories.

It is feared that many have been taken by Russian forces and sent to military camps or foster care, or have even been adopted by Russian families.

....................


Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jun/27/russia-ukrainian-children-abduction-war-crime?CMP=share_btn_url

---

Link to tweet

Ukrainian children from a Donetsk orphanage at a camp in Zolotaya Kosa, Russia.
Up to 35,000 Ukrainian children may be held in Russia,
with many feared to have been adopted. Photograph: AP


?width=1140&dpr=2&s=none&crop=none
A march in London organised by the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign,
demanding that Russia release abducted Ukrainian children. Photograph: Guy Bell/Alamy