WASHINGTON, D.C. – As peace talks in the Ukraine-Russia war continue, Ukrainian officials said this must be agreed to: Russia must return the thousands of Ukrainian kids who have been taken from their families. A recent Senate hearing focused on this issue. Warning: some of the details might be disturbing.
“Since the beginning of Russian full-scale aggression, thousands of children have been abducted and forcibly trafficked from their homes, separated from their families or removed from the orphanages or foster care institutions in the occupied territories or also transferred to Russia or Belarus,” said Ambassador Olha Stefanishyna during the Senate committee hearing. She is the Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States.
Ukraine’s Ambassador estimates about 20-thousand children have been deported for forcibly transferred. Ambassador Stefanishyna called it a Russian war tactic.
“These children were not only subject to a forcible transfer but to a change of their names, their language, their identity, even their citizenship,” detailed the Ambassador.
Rep. Michael McCaul (R- TX), who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, adds these kids are being forced to memorize propaganda and told their own country and their families are the enemy.
“The Ambassador told me about a million live within the occupied parts, vulnerable to brainwashing and abuse and more than 43-thousand have already enrolled in Russia’s paramilitary youth program,” said Rep. McCaul during his testimony in the hearing.
According to the organization Bring Kids Back, about 1,900 kids have been returned. Mykola Kuleba with Save Ukraine, another organization, shared disturbing details according to one child who was rescued:
“Russian forces found a message from a Ukrainian soldier on his friend’s phone, they ripped out his teeth and eyelids, they cut off his fingers,” said Kuleba during the hearing. “He did not survive the torture.”
Senators on both sides said there cannot be a peace deal without considering these kids.
“You cannot honorably end this conflict unless you account for every child taken by Putin’s Russia from Ukraine,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R- SC) during the hearing.
First Lady Melania Trump has reached out directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin on this issue and has urged Russia to reunite these children and their families.
