Anastasiia Hrubryna

Freelance journalist

As Ukraine continues to investigate the fate of the many thousands of Ukrainian children illegally deported to Russia, legal experts fear that justice may come too late for many of those concerned.

Estimates suggest that more than 20,000 Ukrainian children may have been kidnapped, though a definitive figure is not yet known.

These children have their names changed, are subjected to so-called patriotic re-education and placed with new Russian families, robbing them of the chance to ever return home. As teenagers, they are frequently sent to camps for military training and upon reaching adulthood can be drafted into the Russian army to fight against their own country.

Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, told Russian propaganda channels how Pylyp, a Ukrainian teenager abducted from Mariupol initially hated Russia and sang Ukrainian songs, but after living with her family, his mindset “changed”.

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague issued an arrest warrant for both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Lvova-Belova in connection with the deportation of Ukrainian children.

According to the prosecutor general’s office, a single criminal proceeding has been opened to investigate the deportation of Ukrainian children to the Russian Federation, consolidating all related cases. As of November 20, 2025, 22 individuals have been named as suspects. Three criminal cases involving ten people have been sent to court, with suspects including Russian deputies, military personnel, representatives of the occupation authorities and collaborators. No verdicts have yet been issued.

Oleksandr Pavlichenko, Executive Director of the Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union, confirms that Russia’s deportation of children primarily violates the Rome Statute, the Fourth Geneva Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights, among other related international agreements.

“International law is failing here and we have to acknowledge that the treaty-based conditions established to date are not preventing these crimes from being committed,” Pavlichenko said.

Researchers at Yale University’s School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab have been among the most active in investigating the deportations, with findings from each of their studies immediately sent to the ICC.

The abduction of a child from an occupied territory can be reported on the Children of War portal. The child’s information is then entered into Ukrainian government agencies and databases. Abductions can also be reported to the National Police of Ukraine and the Office of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.

According to Daria Herasymchuk, commissioner of the President of Ukraine for Children’s Rights, in most cases parents are told their children are being taken to recreational camps for their health and wellness. Refusal is not an option.

“The problem is that, unfortunately, no international organisation, no country, not even Ukraine itself, can say exactly how many children have been abducted by Russian authorities,” Herasymchuk continued. “It’s possible that even the Russians themselves don’t know this number. They had reported abducting 744,000 Ukrainian children before the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Putin and his Children’s Rights Commissioner, Lvova-Belova.”

The fate of orphans and children deprived of parental care, who were living in orphanages and other institutions at the start of the full-scale invasion, is also a pressing issue.

There is virtually no information about the institutions that fell under Russian occupation between 2014 and 2022. Many of the children from these orphanages have since reached adulthood.

A recent study revealed that Russia has established at least 210 “patriotic re-education” facilities for deported Ukrainian children.

Herasymchuk noted that one of the biggest challenges in locating and identifying these abducted children is that Russia deliberately complicates the documentation process and prevents them from contacting relatives in Ukraine.

Mykola Kuleba, Ukraine’s former presidential commissioner for children’s rights and founder of the Save Ukraine organisation, reported that from the beginning of the full-scale war until October 30, 2025, Save Ukraine had successfully returned 1,001 Ukrainian children from occupied territories and deportation. This was made possible by financial support from international partners, particularly European organisations.

The funds cover not only the search for and return of the children but also their rehabilitation, which can last two to three years. This includes specialised programmes for children who have endured indoctrination, militarisation or sexual violence.

Overall, Ukraine has successfully returned over 1,700 children since the beginning of the full-scale war.

“We have not yet managed to achieve our main goal: the systemic return of all deported Ukrainian children,” Kuleba said. “Is the issue of returning Ukrainian children a top priority for Europeans? Unfortunately, I cannot say that it is. Although European leaders like Ursula von der Leyen regularly emphasise that every Ukrainian child must be returned, the overall response is insufficient.”

Kuleba highlighted the case of a 12-year-old boy and his friend, who had been planning to escape from a summer camp which turned out to be so-called a re-education centre.

“His mother found us and begged for help. We managed to conduct a rescue operation, bringing his mother to the Russian camp with all the necessary documents to retrieve her child,” he explained.

Kuleba said that the data collected on child deportees consistently revealed patterns of cruel treatment, including physical, psychological, and in some cases, sexual abuse.

“I have yet to meet a single returned child who did not recount some form of Russian war crimes,” he said.

Approximately half of the children reported militarisation, including weapons training, mandatory drills or forced membership in military youth movements like the Yunarmiya. One in ten endured torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, which included physical violence, beatings and interrogations .

The vast majority underwent pro-Russian indoctrination and were subjected to propaganda aimed at eradicating their Ukrainian identity.

Kuleba said that hildren were even punished for speaking Ukrainian. At the Lazurny camp in Crimea, for instance, where children from the occupied territories were brought en masse, teenagers were placed in solitary confinement for a week for singing a Ukrainian song or displaying national symbols.

Pavlichenko warned that there was a significant risk that by the time the ICC heard the case on the deportation of Ukrainian children, the abductees will have grown up, permanently losing their connection to their families and to Ukraine.

He noted that those who were abducted in 2014 were either already adults or close to adulthood. Some may have even gone to fight against their native country.

“Will there be a real trial where we see these suspects in the dock? That depends on many factors. If the situation continues as it has for the past two or three years, the prospects of seeing someone like Putin on trial are slim, ” Pavlichenko said.

“We need to consider the circumstances under which Russia would be compelled to comply with the decisions of international systems and bodies. Only then will we understand how realistic it is to hold them accountable.”