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

Photo: Ukrainian children in a camp in Russia/ AP

International experts are calling the mass abduction of Ukrainian children by Russia the largest child abduction crime since World War II, comparing it to the "Germanization" of Polish children by the Nazis.

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion in February 2022, more than 35,000 Ukrainian children have allegedly been forcibly taken from occupied territories and sent to Russia. They have been abducted from orphanages, from the front lines after losing their parents, or even from their own families under pressure.

Russia refuses their return, claiming that Ukraine is using the story of the missing children for political gain.

A march in London organized by the Ukraine Solidarity Campaign

Only 1,366 children have been returned so far, according to the Ukrainian organization Bring Kids Back. Many of them were sent to military camps, adopted by Russian families, or locked up in orphanages, where they are lost forever.

The rescued children recount being forbidden to speak Ukrainian, forced to sing the Russian anthem, and draw the Russian flag.

"If a child is put in an orphanage... it is almost impossible to get them back. They are lost forever," says Daria Kasyanova, from the Ukrainian Child Rights Network.

The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Commissioner for Children's Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children.

Thousands of teddy bears with candles on display at a protest in Brussels, February 2023

“Taking a child from one ethnic group and forcibly integrating them into another is a war crime,” says Nathaniel Raymond of Yale University, who has documented thousands of cases through analysis of databases, documents and satellite imagery.

Experts warn that children are being used as leverage in peace negotiations. Russia, they say, initially aimed to "Russify" children through the camps, but then began using them as "hostages" for diplomatic gain.

_{Source: The Guardian}