Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Russia has abducted 19,546 Ukrainian children. These children have been put up for adoption in Russia, given new identities, and even taken to “vacation camps” in Belarus.
19,546 and Counting
Russian state TV claims the abducted children were “rescued,” not taken.
Russia claims it is providing the children a safe place to live at vacation camps while the war rages. At least 70 “camps” have been discovered. Their locations include occupied Crimea, Belarus, and even far-east Russia.
Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, also claimed that her commission only relocated children without kin and that she didn’t have any record of children being taken from their blood relatives.
In reality, while the majority of the abducted children have come from orphanages or children’s care homes in Ukraine, many have also been ripped away from their families.
Most of the children have no contact with their families or guardians, and only 373 of the 19,546 children have been recovered from Russia’s grasp.
Inside the Camps
Soldiers, sometimes after beating or killing family members in front of the children, take the children to camps.
Inside the “vacation camps,” those in charge attempt to brainwash the abducted children into hating Ukraine and eradicate their Ukrainian identity. The children are also placed under heavy surveillance. Offenses in the “vacation camps” include speaking Ukrainian, displaying Ukrainian symbols, and refusing to sing the Russian national anthem.
Inside the camps, reports from rescued children detail that those in charge often strike, swear at, and threaten the children. A young boy even reported that doctors told him to praise Russia in the middle of a medical procedure that was done without anesthesia to treat wounds from shrapnel that had killed his mother.
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has also expressed concern over sexual violence committed by Russian soldiers against Ukrainians. In 2023, the panel added Russia to a “blacklist” of countries that violate children’s rights during conflict.
Ukrainian Identity
In occupied regions, Russians have been given the power to file for Russian citizenship on behalf of the Ukrainian children under their care. The citizenship process for the children has also been expedited from five years to 90 days.
The caregivers have also given some of the abducted children new names or translated their names into Russian. Some children were also issued new birth certificates and Russian social security numbers.
Ukrainian children were also discovered to have been put up for adoption on the Russian government–linked website usynovite.ru.
Svetlana Scherbakova, a child services director in Crimea, said, “It doesn’t matter who they are and who they were.” The Russian government argues that Ukrainian children are Russian, not Ukrainian, and that they therefore belong to Russia. Their ultimate goal is to completely assimilate Ukraine into Russia.
What better way to destroy Ukraine than to target their future generation?
International Response
The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for both Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova for the “war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children) and that of unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.”
Some have equated the abductions to genocide, including the U.S. House of Representatives. A resolution passed in the House this year states that Russia’s actions are contrary to the obligations they are under due to the UN Genocide Convention. It labels Russia’s transfer and concealment of children in the camps as an effort to wipe out an entire generation of Ukrainians.
Last weekend, the abductions were denounced by members of the international community during the Summit on Peace for Ukraine. About 90 countries were in attendance, and many signed the summit’s final document that stated that the blame for the suffering and destruction during the war in Ukraine is firmly on Russia.
Biden and Trump on Ukraine
President Joe Biden did not attend the Summit on Peace for Ukraine, as he opted to campaign at a fundraiser in California with A-list Hollywood stars George Clooney and Julia Roberts instead. Vice President Kamala Harris represented the United States and promised another $1.5 billion in aid. Biden signed a 10-year security agreement with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week, but it leaves the future unclear because it can be canceled within six months.
Former President Donald Trump has often spoken of cutting aid to Ukraine if elected again and sees the war as draining U.S. resources. It is unlikely that Trump plans to abandon Ukraine. Rather, he would seek to rapidly end the war in Ukraine’s favor.
Until the war is over, Russia will continue attempting to erase Ukraine’s future generations through abductions.
The well-being of the children depends on the outcome of the war.
