Families say they have taken great risks to bring back their children who were snatched from care homes, battle zones, or from families at gunpoint.

Natalia, a mother of one child, described risking her life to bring back her two sons, who had been stranded in a Russian camp after being sent on what was supposed to be a temporary trip months ago. “You don’t understand how I feel,” she said after the reunion.

‘Impossible to Get Them Back’
To date, only 1,366 children have returned to Ukraine. Researchers at Yale University believe the actual number of abducted children is far greater still.

They uncovered evidence of military training, Punishment for Speaking Ukraine, and an effort to indoctrinate children into Russian identity. Some may be in foster care or adopted by Russian families, which have been facilitated by new laws making it easier for Russians to adopt.

Activists say that children separated from both parents are at high risk of vanishing into the system permanently. “They are going to get lost,” the Ukrainian Child Rights Network’s Daria Kasyanova said.

ICC Labels It a War Crime
Arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Children’s commission Maria Lvova-Belova were later issued by the International Criminal Court in March 2023 for the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children.

Yale’s Nathaniel Raymond says these are textbook examples of a war crime: “Taking a child from one ethnic or national group and making them part of another — that’s a war crime.”

Ukraine still insists on the return of all the children as a major demand in peace talks. “They are Ukrainian and they need to return,” one evacuation specialist said.