Ukraine is trying to unite the efforts of various states and international organizations to stop the forcible deportation of Ukrainian children and return them to Ukraine.

❗️According to the official statistics of the Ministry of Reintegration, 19,528 Ukrainian children were deported to russia, of which 328 were returned. The data are not final, because they concern babies and teenagers whose disappearance was reported by parents, guardians, representatives of local authorities or witnesses. The final calculation is complicated by the russian federation’s refusal to provide complete lists of deported Ukrainian minors.

Among the children who were displaced or deported during the year, several conditional groups can be distinguished. The first is children from residential institutions, most of whom have biological parents who are deprived of parental rights and whose guardian is the state. The second category includes children whose parents or guardians died or temporarily disappeared during hostilities, and the third category includes children who were moved from the occupied territories to the so-called rest camps in the Crimea or the south of кussia. Also, some parents gave “voluntary” consent to take their children out of desperation or threats of deprivation of parental rights.

What happens to kidnapped Ukrainian children?

After being kept in sanatoriums and camps in Crimea or near moscow, minors from Ukraine are transferred to russian families for upbringing, where they try to re-educate and russify them. Special attention in the “adaptation to life in russian society” program is given to those Ukrainian children who lived under occupation for a long time or lost their parents. Within the framework of total russification, children are forbidden to speak Ukrainian, forced to learn the russian national anthem and stand up during its performance, and are punished for refusing. “Educators” turn children against pro-Ukrainian parents, and also claim that no one is waiting for them at home. In addition, children are prevented from contacting their relatives in Ukraine, and representatives of international organizations are not allowed to visit them.

Special “educational” programs and special militarized camps were created to “correct difficult children”. In the annexed Crimea and on the territory of the russian federation, there is a chain of 45 children’s camps and 12 military camps (such as the “forces of russia”), where at least 6 thousand minor Ukrainians undergo “ideological re-education”. As the children who managed to return to Ukraine testify, the process of “political re-education” in such camps is carried out under the supervision of former “Berkut residents” and is accompanied by beatings for any manifestations of Ukrainianness.

All actions — from kidnapping to adoption of these children — are centrally coordinated by the kremlin. The financing of measures to pass the “process of changing the Motherland” from Ukraine to russia and instilling the ideas of the “russian world” are carried out from federal “support” funds, such as the “putin fund”.

Why do russians steal Ukrainian children?

First, to replenish the russian gene pool, because more than half of the children born on the territory of the russian federation are not carriers of russian appearance and culture, which greatly oppresses the russian authorities. Compensation for the demographic decline thus corresponds to the kremlin’s strategic program of reproducing the so-called all-russian identity, when all citizens of the russian federation should feel like patriots, ready to kill on the orders of the dictator. Therefore, in May of last year, russia simplified the procedure for acquiring citizenship for Ukrainian children who do not have guardians, and since December, children at the age of 14 in the newly occupied territories automatically receive russian citizenship.

Secondly, the kremlin uses the “children’s issue” in propaganda (to accuse the Ukrainian authorities of neglecting the return of children) and to incite society to protest. By deporting young Ukrainians, russia is trying to show itself to the world as a “humane state that saves children from war.” However, the evacuation of children from dangerous zones is a violation of international law, because in case of danger, they should not be transferred to a participant in the conflict, but to a third country.

What are the prospects for the children’s return?

The return process is very difficult, because the russian federation does everything to keep the kidnapped children forever. Without the involvement and pressure of the international community and specialized organizations, it will be very difficult for Ukraine to return its children home. And although the russian leadership understands that every Ukrainian child who returns is proof of their crimes, the indictment of the International Criminal Court in The Hague somewhat changes the kremlin’s policy. So far, the Save Ukraine fund has carried out 5 missions to liberate children who have parents and legal guardians from the occupied Crimea and the russian federation. The situation is more complicated with 4,500 orphans, for many of whom it is problematic to find legal guardians, and the russian federation is only willing to return them. However, most of these children still have relatives, and the Ukrainian side is working to find them.

So there is every reason to hope that sooner or later, all deported Ukrainian children will return home.