Policy Alert: Russia’s Mass Abduction of Ukrainian Children Is a War Crime That Cannot Be Ignored

Russia’s systematic kidnapping of 19,500+ Ukrainian children and what Congress can do to increase pressure on Moscow

Bottom Line Up Front

As the Trump administration works to advance peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, one issue has emerged as a bipartisan flashpoint on Capitol Hill: Russia’s abduction and forced transfer of Ukrainian children. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian government has forcibly deported at least 19,500 Ukrainian children.

Members of Congress have rightly condemned Russia’s actions. On December 3, the Senate will hold a hearing to review reports on the abduction of Ukrainian children. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has introduced a bipartisan resolution calling on Russia to return all kidnapped Ukrainian children prior to a peace agreement being finalized. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) introduced bipartisan legislation to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism unless it returns the children—this legislation was advanced unanimously out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in October. 

This policy alert outlines Russia’s systematic abduction of Ukrainian children, documented abuses of the children in its custody, and how its actions violate international law. It also outlines concrete steps Congress can take to hold Moscow accountable, support ongoing repatriation efforts, and ensure that no peace agreement is finalized until every kidnapped child is returned home.

---

---

Russia’s Systematic War Against Ukrainian Children

Russia has abducted roughly 20,000 Ukrainian children since it invaded the country in 2022.

• Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian government has kidnapped and forcibly deported at least 19,500 Ukrainian children. Research from the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab has documented over 8,400 children relocated to dozens of facilities across Russia and Belarus.
  
• Children have been abducted after their parents were arrested or killed by Russian forces or during “filtration” procedures, in which families are forcibly separated. Kidnapped children undergo systematic “re-education” aimed at erasing their Ukrainian identity. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe concluded that Russia’s transfer of abducted children is “clearly being planned and organized in a systematic way” with the aim of “annihilating every link to and feature of their Ukrainian identity.”
  
• Russia’s campaign has been personally sanctioned by Vladimir Putin, who issued a May 2022 decree to streamline the process of adopting Ukrainian orphans or those without parental care and granting them Russian citizenship. Evidence shows Russian presidential aircraft and state funds have been used to transport groups of children, demonstrating the systematic and state-sponsored nature of the operation.
  
• Russian politician Maria Lvova-Belova spearheads the government’s efforts. In October 2021, Putin appointed her as the federal Commissioner for Children’s Rights, elevating her as the public face of the regime’s youth initiatives. She has participated in “adoption” and re-registration ceremonies, including a July 2022 event in Moscow, where 14 Ukrainian children received their Russian identity papers. In a 2025 interview, she openly admitted to taking a child from Mariupol and trying to erase his Ukrainian identity through re-education. She has been sanctioned by the United States and other governments. 
  
• Russia’s response to growing international condemnation has predictably been anger and denial. During recent negotiations in Istanbul, Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation, dismissed Ukraine’s demand for the children’s return as a show for “bleeding-heart European old ladies.”

Kidnapped Ukrainian children face abuse, torture, and sexual violence.

• The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine has documented and confirmed multiple cases of murder, rape, torture, and unlawful confinement of Ukrainian children.
  
• Sexual violence against children represents one of the most horrific dimensions of Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine. In 2023, Ukrainian prosecutors documented 13 cases of sexual violence against children, the youngest of which was a 4-year-old girl. Reporting from the Lieber Institute at West Point revealed accounts of electric shocks to genitals, attempted rape, castration, and forced nudity, and attacks intended to cause permanent reproductive harm. The same report claims that multiple survivors recounted that Russian troops told them these abuses were meant to prevent the birth of more “Nazis,” suggesting genocidal intent.
  
• Reports show that Russian authorities also obstruct family reunification by withholding lists of abducted children, moving them to different locations, and often assigning them new Russian names to obscure their identities. 
  
• A recent Return Every Child report, (including War Child UK, Save Ukraine, and the Human Security Centre) based on interviews with 200 repatriated children, found that 55% had been subjected to pro-Russian indoctrination, 41% were exposed to militarization, 18% were separated from family, 18% were denied medical care, 30% were placed in camps for indoctrination or military training, 10% reported being tortured or subject to cruel treatment, and 6% were subject to sexual violence. 

There is growing evidence that Russia is actively militarizing Ukrainian children to support its war effort and prepare them for future military service.

• At the center of this effort is Yunarmiya, Russia’s state-funded Youth Army created by the Ministry of Defense in 2016. It now boasts 1.8 million members, which is more than the combined military forces of the United States and EU countries. Yunarmiya’s militarization program has increasingly extended to Ukrainian children. In the summer of 2024, the Mariupol headquarters of Yunarmiya hosted seven sessions at a children’s camp, where Ukrainian children were taught to shoot automatic weapons.
  
• Russia is expanding this program to reach an even greater number of youth, including an effort in 2025 to double the number of Yunarmiya centers throughout Russian-occupied areas in Ukraine. These militarized children’s programs are designed to pull young Ukrainians into Russia’s ideological orbit and eventually funnel them toward military service.
  
• In addition to Yunarmiya, Russia operates the Warrior Center for Military and Patriotic Education, a network established in 2022 by Putin’s direct order. The center runs camps with names like “Time of Young Heroes” that explicitly aim to prepare youth for service in Russia’s Armed Forces. Ukrainian teenagers from occupied parts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, and Donetsk oblasts are sent to military training at the center’s Avangard Defense and Sports Camp in Russia’s Volgograd region. In 2024, some 1,290 Ukrainian children from occupied territories were put through the Warrior Center’s militarization programs in Volgograd.

Despite Russia’s extensive disinformation campaign to sanitize its campaign of mass kidnappings and forced deportations, its actions are clear violations of international law and war crimes.

• The Kremlin continues to portray its mass abductions of innocent children as consistent with international law. The central narrative of Russian disinformation characterizes the mass deportation as a humanitarian rescue operation. The Kremlin depicts the transfer of children to Russia as a “humanitarian mission” and a “rescue from shelling.” Russian officials acknowledge the presence of Ukrainian children in Russia but assert that the camps are components of an extensive humanitarian initiative for abandoned and war-traumatized orphans.
  
• Russian state media continues to actively promote the deportation program to domestic audiences through orchestrated performances. In one instance, abducted children were presented at a government pro-war rally commemorating the first anniversary of the invasion, where they were depicted expressing gratitude to Russian soldiers for “saving them.”
  
• Contrary to Russia’s claims and propaganda, its actions constitute clear violations of international law and war crimes. Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention explicitly prohibits individual or mass forcible transfers and deportations of protected persons from occupied territory, “regardless of their motive.” The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Moscow Mechanism mission concluded that Russia’s non-consensual transfers of Ukrainian children constitute violations of international humanitarian law and, in certain cases, amount to grave breaches of the Geneva Convention and war crimes. 
  
• International humanitarian law requires that evacuated children remain as close as possible to their homes, be accompanied by parents or caregivers, and have clear plans for return. Russia’s fast-tracking of adoptions by Russian families contravenes these internationally accepted laws and obligations. The OSCE report also concluded that facilitating re-education and permanent integration into Russian families confirms that displaced Ukrainian children are victims of forcible transfer, not humanitarian rescue.
  
• In 2023, the United States issued an official determination that Russia’s removal of children from Ukraine constitutes a crime against humanity, characterizing the deportations as “part of the Kremlin’s widespread and systematic attack against Ukraine’s civilian population.” The State Department has imposed sanctions on individuals connected to child deportation schemes, including five Kremlin-backed officials in Ukraine and three Belarusian government and civil society figures who oversaw the transfer of Ukrainian children into Belarus. 

---

How the United States Should Respond

Russia’s systematic abduction of Ukrainian children demands a decisive congressional response. Lawmakers from both parties have already signaled their commitment to this issue. Now they must follow through with concrete action. Congress should take the following steps to impose direct costs on Moscow, support U.S.-led reunification efforts, and ensure that no peace agreement leaves thousands of Ukrainian children in Russian captivity.

• Condition peace on the return of all children: Congress should make clear that any negotiated settlement must include the full repatriation of abducted Ukrainian children. Lawmakers should pass S. Res. 236 and H. Res 564, which calls for the return of all abducted children before finalizing any peace agreement. This resolution would send an unambiguous message to the administration and to Moscow that children cannot be bargaining chips. Their return is a precondition, not a concession.
  
• Restore funding for investigative research: The United States previously funded Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab, which used satellite imagery and open-source intelligence to map the forced deportation of Ukrainian children and contribute to investigations against Russian officials. In 2025, the U.S. government discontinued this funding. Congress should restore support for these critical efforts and continue U.S. participation in the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children, which works to locate, document, and repatriate abducted children.
  
• Support U.S. reunification efforts: First Lady Melania Trump has established a direct channel with Russian officials and secured the return of eight Ukrainian children in October 2025. Congress should authorize sustained funding for these reunification efforts to ensure this initiative has the resources needed to bring every child home. This should include Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Chuck Grassley’s (R-IA) bipartisan  Abducted Ukrainian Children Recovery and Accountability Act (S. 2119), which is in the Senate-passed NDAA for FY 2026 (Senate § 1266).
  
• Designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism: FDD Action endorses the Designating the Russian Federation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism Act (S. 2978 / H.R. 5757), which would require the Secretary of State to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism unless it returns all abducted Ukrainian children. This legislation creates direct leverage to compel Russia’s compliance.

---

Additional Resources

Russia Continues Deadly Attacks on Ukraine Ahead of Witkoff Visit as Zelenskyy Looks to European Allies (FDD Flash Brief | December 1, 2025)

Russia is turning deported Ukrainian children into bargaining chips (Karolina Hird | Institute for the Study of War | November 5, 2025)

Saving lives in Ukraine will require Trump to play the strong cards at his disposal (Peter Doran and Dmitriy Shapiro | New York Post | October 21, 2025)

Russia still holds an untold number of abducted Ukrainian children (Ivana Stradner | The Hill | June 25, 2025)