The Stolen Generation: The Deportations of Ukrainian Children To Russia

(Photo by Mirek Pruchnicki via Flickr/CC BY 2.0 DEED)

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19,546 is the official number of Ukrainian children who were deported to the Russian Federation since the invasion in February 2022. The number of transferred children is estimated to be far higher. These Ukrainian children have been stolen from their families and taken from orphanages and classes as a part of the Russian Federation’s massive deportation campaign launched two years ago. 

These deportations breach international law and violate the consent of parents and legal guardians. It is made possible by well-planned legal and political measures from Russian national and local authorities, including propaganda. The international community and the Ukrainian civil society are still coordinating efforts to repatriate the stolen children. Yet, the number of returnees remains extremely low. As of February 2024, only 388 Ukrainian children reunited with their families. Two years after the invasion, as war fatigue kicks in, it is important to continue shedding light on an overlooked issue and, finally, bring the kids back home. 

Unveiling the Reality of the Deportations

A few days before the Russian invasion, the self-proclaimed Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics ordered “to evacuate the local population to the Russian Federation,” including boarding schools and orphanages. Teachers witnessed children kidnapped during school classes. Parents of the Russian-controlled territories were tricked or forced to give up their children to the Russian authorities via different methods. The Ukrainian government identified several scenarios, including suppression of parental rights for non-cooperation with the Russian authorities, separation during filtration at the border, and voluntary departures for “rest” camps for a few weeks. Some reports show that these child transfers already started after the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea. Yet, deportations grew from the 2022 Russian invasion, reaching today more than 19,500 missing children.

Upon arrival in Russia, Ukrainian children are held in custody facilities for re-education and military training or are taken through adoption procedures by Russian families. Some of them have seen their names and dates of birth changed before getting Russian citizenship. The Yale School of Public Health reported “43 reeducation and adoption facilities” in Russian and Russian-controlled territories. According to the Belarusian NGO National Anti-Crisis Management Group, as of August 2023, at least 2,100 Ukrainian children would have been forcibly transferred into camps in Belarus too. 

The few returnees talk about the poor living conditions in these facilities. Artem, who reunited with his mother after six months in a boarding school in Russian-controlled territory, states that “I wanted to run from there, it was hard. We slept on the cement floor, with no pillows.” Artem also said that they had military training, too. Tanya and Zhania recalled they had to sing the Russian anthem and only speak Russian during their six months in Crimea. In October 2023, the United Nations (UN) published a report documenting punishments in camps, including emotional blackmail, bullying, and detention.

A Large-Scale Russification Campaign 

The Russian government carefully planned this massive transfer of children. Every layer of power has been involved, from local authorities and relatives kidnapping the children for money to the adoption of a Ukrainian boy by the Russian Commissioner on children’s rights. In March 2022, the Russian government passed a new rule that makes Russian citizenship easier for Ukrainian orphans to get. This decree represents a significant obstacle to future repatriation. 

The government established a register of Russian families that could be fit for adopting Ukrainian children and a hotline to ease the pairing. This adoption program provides cash payment for the families and social recognition for good service to Russia. 

The Russian authorities have carefully created an information vacuum by not giving any information on the whereabouts of the children to the parents. The Yale report documents cases of parents being told: “not to send cell phones with their children to camp.” Families have to gather information through other means, including by watching Russian authorities’ social media in the hope of recognizing their children.

But what are the causes behind the Russian forcible transfers of children? One of the reasons is related to demographics. Since the coronavirus pandemic, Russia has experienced a significant population decrease, aggravated by the war against Ukraine and young people fleeing the country. Thus, transferring children to Russia aims at balancing the demographic crisis. But behind these deportations lay other reasons related to cultural war. 

The Importance of a Good Narrative

The Russian government presents the Russian population with a well-prepared narrative displaying the state as the saviour evacuating children to recreational camps or medical centres to protect them from the war. The massive campaign of transfers is supported by a 2022 law banning any publication going against the national narrative and praised by well- planned propaganda. Upon arrival in Russia, Ukrainian children were filmed receiving gifts. For the first anniversary of the invasion, a pro-war rally featured Ukrainian children thanking Russian soldiers for rescuing them. On the rare occasions of family reunions, TV also filmed Ukrainian children hugging their parents to showcase the alleged Russian efforts to return children to their families. The rescue mission serves as a justification for the invasion and fuels national support while demoralizing Ukrainian people whose children have gone missing. 

In the past, many governments used children as a weapon of war. For instance, Polish children were stolen to be “Germanize[d]” under the Nazi regime and South Sudanese children were abducted to be used as child soldiers. Russia aims at re-educating children “by the standards of their ideology, with the “correct” state symbols.” The Russian Federation has repeatedly used a denial rhetoric of the existence of the Ukrainian nation and its legitimacy while asserting that Ukrainians and Russians are one people. In this logic, Ukrainian children were stripped of their Ukrainian identity through re-education tactics, such as the strict implementation of a Russian curriculum in schools. 

A Legal Perspective

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) ruled that the Russian Federation was committing a war crime by unlawfully transferring children from Ukraine. The ICC issued an arrest warrant against President Putin and the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights Lvova-Belova, legally requiring ICC member states to arrest and transfer them if they are on their territories. Despite the arrest warrant, Putin and Lvova-Belova remain safe from capture or trial so long as they stay in Russia — a by-product of the ICC’s controversial in absentia rules, preventing the court trial of those not present in court.

Looking at the rescue mission argument that the Russian Federation proudly shows off, international humanitarian law, the legal corpus applicable during armed conflicts, establishes specific rules. The legal corpus provides that “parties to the conflict shall facilitate the reception of […] children in a neutral country” and that “no party to the conflict shall arrange for the evacuation of children, other than its own nationals, to a foreign country.” Similarly, international humanitarian law anticipates a list of steps to keep track of the children’s whereabouts and the parents’ consent for evacuation. So, these child transfers could amount to a war crime. 

Besides, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the international treaty recognizing the human rights of children during peacetime and wartime, was ratified by the Russian Federation in 1990. The country is legally bound to this document despite violating several articles of the Convention. For instance, Article 8 provides that children have the right to an identity, including a name, nationality and family relations; Article 9 provides that states must ensure that parents and children stay in contact, while Article 30 protects the right of children to use their language and to enjoy their own culture.

Spotlight on International, National and Local Initiatives

Since the beginning of the invasion, the international community and Ukraine have taken response measures to address the deportation campaign. In May 2023, President Zelensky initiated the Bring Kids Back UA humanitarian programme to coordinate efforts to repatriate children, followed by the If You Know, Tell! information campaign. This campaign aims at distributing information on “the criminal nature of the forced displacements of children” and collecting information on the whereabouts of children by encouraging people living in Russia to speak up. The Netherlands and Qatar have gotten involved in the programme, with the former giving DNA tests “to identify [abducted] children” quickly and the latter negotiating with the Russian Federation for the repatriation of children. 

In February 2024, Ukraine and Canada launched the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children to coordinate further international efforts, including intelligence exchange on where the children are, supporting the Bring Kids Back UA action plan. To date, this partnership includes 28 countries and seeks to address the issue of justice accessibility for children.

Save Ukraine, a Ukrainian NGO, has initiated several rescue missions, supporting legal guardians wishing to travel to Russia, retrieve their children, and help them fund their risky journey. The NGO also provides training on how to react in case of arrest and questioning by Russian authorities. So far, Save Ukraine has helped repatriate 251 children to Ukraine. 

In most camps, only parents are allowed to retrieve their children, so the help of Save Ukraine is precious for the many families that cannot afford to make the trip. The UN noted that, as of September 2023, “there was no mechanism for the return of transferred children in place between” Russia and Ukraine. Apart from the negotiated returns by third-party countries, most returns happen directly thanks to parents. Besides, Ukrainian men are prohibited from leaving the country under martial law, leaving women to take on this risky journey.

The Ones Who Returned

As of February 2024, less than 400 Ukrainian children would have returned to their homes, a disproportionately low number compared to the scale of abductions. Repatriation is challenging because of the lack of cooperation from Russian authorities, the change of children’s names, and young children who might not remember where they come from. The Bring Kids Back UA action plan encompasses children’s reintegration measures, with a child centre collecting information from children and their families and providing medical and psychosocial support.

After their return, children have shown signs of depression and self-harm. The Russification process only adds up to the traumatic event of the war, with the culture of hate towards the Ukrainian nation and bullying. Rostislav, held in Crimea for a year, declared the children “were told that Ukraine is not going to exist anymore, that [we] are not needed anywhere. […] Nobody waits [for us] anywhere back home.” Parents also bear a community stigma for having “given up” on their children or become sympathizers of the invaders. NGOs and the Ukrainian government should put efforts into rebuilding trust at the child, family and community levels. 

The trauma of deportation and detention also affects verbalization for the returnees. Sacha, who was taken back home by his mother after six weeks in a boarding school, states “It is too distressing to remember.” Thus, it is hard to collect more testimonies to understand the phenomenon and ensure it will not be repeated. 

Bring The Kids Home

Efforts should continue to locate the thousands of children still missing. After returning, children should receive education and healthcare to heal the trauma and recover dignity and confidence in their Ukrainian identity. A unified strategy to return children is urgently needed, as the more time passes, the more difficult it is to locate them. The newly created Coalition for The Return of Ukrainian Children might bring a more integrated and coordinated response to this crisis. 

In the meantime, states should systematically raise the issue of child transfers with leverage and regular contact with the Russian government as they negotiate for more repatriations. The Council of Europe recommended that states adopt laws recognizing “forcible transfers and unjustifiable delay in repatriation” as a crime of genocide to ensure accountability. Despite awareness-rising efforts, this issue remained a topic limited to the circle of European affairs and diplomats. So, governments more broadly should discuss it to leverage the power of open-source communities and prevent Ukrainian families from falling for the “summer camps” trick.

Edited by Ashley Renz