Tens of thousands of abducted Ukrainian children still in Russia

One of the most appalling aspects of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is the abduction of Ukrainian children by Russian authorities.

Throughout the war, tens of thousands of Ukrainian children have been abducted and forcibly transferred to Russia and Belarus.

The Ukrainian organisation Bring Kids Back UA recently reported that it has records of 20,570 Ukrainian children who have been forcibly transferred or deported from Ukraine to Russia, according to DW.

The true figure could be much higher. In June 2025, the Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale University estimated that around 35,000 Ukrainian children had been taken.

As early as 2023, Russian authorities stated that they had “received” 744,000 children and reported to the UN that around 46,000 Ukrainian children had obtained Russian passports, DW reports.

Children seized in different ways

Many of the children abducted from Ukraine have been taken from orphanages and children’s homes, but there are also accounts of children being directly separated from their parents, as Yle previously reported.

Children have also been abducted from hospitals, for example during the siege of Mariupol in 2022.

Researcher Anna Tarasenko from the Aleksanteri Institute in Finland explains to the Barents Observer how this has become legally possible within the complex cobweb of Russian law:

“Russian legislation allows public authorities to restrict or deprive parents of their parental rights and to assume temporary guardianship of children. Similar legislation exists in many states with a Soviet legacy, including Ukraine and Belarus. Drawing on this legal framework, Ukrainian children from occupied territories are taken to Russia in two ways: Firstly, children living with parents are invited to Russian youth or rehabilitation centres under the pretext of care; authorities then sometimes refuse to return them, claiming the parents on occupied territory are unable to care for them properly, and that the state must therefore assume responsibility. Secondly, children who have lost parents because of the war, or who are deemed not to be ‘properly cared for’, are taken by Russian authorities on the grounds that the state must take responsibility for their welfare.”

The Ukrainian children are then placed in various institutions across Russia, including in the far northern Murmansk region.

“The system of institutionalised care is widespread, and these public institutions exist in every Russian region,” says Tarasenko in an interview via email.

The children are dispersed across the vast territory of Russia. At the beginning of the war, large groups were transported to Crimea. Others have been sent to so-called re-education camps on the Kuril Islands in the Russian Far East. Some children have been held in camps in Terijoki, around 100 kilometres from Finland’s southern border, while others are in the orphanage in Kandalaksha south on the Kola Peninsula.

In December 2022, Murmansk governor Andrei Chibis was sanctioned by the European Union for his involvement in kidnapping Ukrainian children. 

Some children are adopted by Russian families. Finnish media have reported about online catalogues, where Russians can choose a Ukrainian child for adoption according to sex, age, or eye colour.

On one occasion in 2022, the Russian state-controlled media outlet NIVA reported that around 350 allegedly orphaned children from the Donbas region had arrived in Russia. Eleven of them ended up in the Murmansk area, where four were adopted by a local woman. NIVA published emotional stories about the children, describing how well they had adapted and how they called the woman “mum”.

But the truth is not as rosy as Russian state media portrays it. According to the latest findings from Yale University, there are at least 210 sites in Russia where Ukrainian children have been taken for military training. Some children have reportedly been made to manufacture drones.

The children are held in facilities spread across more than 5,600 kilometres. These include cadet schools, medical facilities, secondary schools, orphanages, and numerous camps and sanatoriums.

The Humanitarian Research Lab at Yale concludes that:

“Russia is operating a potentially unprecedented system of large-scale re-education, military training, and dormitory facilities capable of holding tens of thousands of children from Ukraine for long periods of time.”

Psychological manipulation

Ukrainian children’s organisations tell grim stories about the abducted children.

In Russia, the names of Ukrainian children are often changed, making it extremely difficult to trace specific individuals.

Children who have been rescued testify that they were told their mothers no longer wanted them, or that Ukraine no longer exists.

The children are subjected to propaganda designed to make them hate Ukraine. Those who resist face punishment and intimidation. Violent psychological methods are reportedly used to break the children’s resistance, including extensive interrogations and threats, Mykola Kuleba from the organisation Save Ukraine told DW.

As a result, many children are deeply traumatised.

However, according to Bring Kids Back UA, 2,134 children have successfully been returned to Ukraine. Some were rescued by parents or grandparents, while others returned through different rescue operations.

“The children who are rescued are completely disoriented when they arrive. They mistrust adults,” Maksym Maksymow from Bring Kids Back UA told DW.

The rescued children receive rehabilitation and psychological support upon returning home.

Targeting children as a tool of propaganda

According to researcher Anna Tarasenko, Russia uses the narrative of “protecting” orphaned Ukrainian children to justify its military actions in Ukraine.

“The idea of protecting children is used to legitimize military actions in Ukraine, alongside other propagandistic arguments,” Tarasenko says.

“The use of Ukrainian children can also be analysed through a biopolitical lens,” she adds. “It reflects the political narratives of Russia’s personalised dictatorship: women should give birth to children, and children should grow up to fight for and defend the motherland. Ukrainian children therefore fit into a broader pattern of how Russian authorities treat both children and women.”

International attention 

The abduction of Ukrainian children was the reason why the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2023 issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova.

The forcible transfer, deportation, and indoctrination of children with the aim of erasing Ukrainian identity constitute war crimes. Such acts violate the fundamental rights of the child.

Following the international arrest warrant, Russia reportedly altered its methods. It still removes Ukrainian children from occupied territories, but now relies on what Maksym Maksymow described to DW as a “multilayered process”.

This process includes militarisation, indoctrination, forced Russification, and the issuing of Russian passports. In occupied territories, Ukrainian youths may ultimately be sent to fight against Ukraine itself.

Many sectors of Russian society are involved in the transfer of Ukrainian children. Recently, Yale University reported that the Russian state oil and gas companies Rosneft and Gazprom funded wartime camps where more than 2,000 Ukrainian children were taken. Trade unions connected to these companies reportedly played a significant role.

Official Russia has dismissed all accusations concerning the abduction of Ukrainian children.

However, the EU recently added another 16 Russian individuals and seven entities to its sanctions list for assisting in the deportation and political indoctrination of Ukrainian children.

The Norwegian government last week allocated NOK 30 million (€2,77 million) to the Red Cross, particularly to help trace missing Ukrainian children. 

Ukrainian organisations continue to work intensively to bring the children home, although they rarely reveal operational details in order not to jeopardise rescue efforts. 

But Russia’s war against Ukraine is now in its fifth year. That is a very long time — especially for an abducted child. 

And tens of thousands of Ukrainian children remain lost somewhere in Russia.

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This article is published as part of an exchange program financed by Svenska Kulturfonden in Finland.