Why Russia Is Stealing Ukrainian Children
Much like the Nazis kidnapped Polish children in WWII to erase their identity, Russia is now forcibly taking Ukrainian children, stripping them of their heritage and rewriting their future.
Adam Starzynski
Jul 4, 2025 - 10:14 AM
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Inside the ICC Case for Child Deportation
Right now, in the heart of Europe, a crime is unfolding that feels ripped from the darkest pages of history. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, thousands of Ukrainian children have been torn from their homes.
This documented crime has drawn the attention of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which issued arrest warrants in March 2023 for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s so-called Children’s Rights Commissioner. The charges they face: the forced deportation of Ukrainian children, a crime under international law.
Stolen Children
Maria Lvova-Belova has publicly boasted about her role, even adopting a 15-year-old boy named Filipp from Mariupol. “He used to like Ukraine,” she admitted, “but now he has adapted.” Adapted, that is, to the language and ideology of those who destroyed his home.
According to Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab, at least 19,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly deported. Some estimates put the number even higher, into the hundreds of thousands. Many are taken to so-called “re-education” camps across Russia where they are stripped of their language, culture, and identity.
Official Russian documents, eyewitness testimonies, intercepted communications, and even state-run media reports. All paint a chilling picture of a coordinated operation to remove children from occupied Ukrainian territories like Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia.
Re-Programming Childhood
Imagine you are nine years old. You lose your parents in a missile strike. Russian soldiers take you to a foreign place, where no one speaks your language, and everyone insists your country never existed.
That’s what happened to Ilia, a Ukrainian boy who was injured by shrapnel in the war and witnessed his mother’s death. Russian soldiers operated on him without anesthesia. Then they began teaching him to write poems about bears, in Russian. “My doctor told me, ‘You must not say Glory to Ukraine. Say Glory to Russia.”
Ilia was one of the lucky few. Thanks to the tireless efforts of his grandmother and the organization Bring Back Kids UA, he was eventually reunited with his family. But he is one of only 137 children officially returned to Ukraine. Thousands remain trapped, some as far away as Siberia.
Inside Russian-run camps, Ukrainian children face beatings, psychological abuse, and non-stop propaganda. One child recalled being told that their parents were dead and Ukraine had been destroyed. Others were punished for refusing to sing Russian military songs.
This isn’t just child abduction, it’s brainwashing on an industrial scale. In occupied Ukrainian schools, Russian authorities have banned the Ukrainian language and forced children to participate in ceremonies glorifying the Kremlin. These children are being conditioned to forget who they are and one day, perhaps, to fight for the very regime that stole them.
Citizenship at Gunpoint
This cultural genocide doesn’t stop with children. In occupied territories, Russia imposes its identity at gunpoint. Citizens are pressured to take Russian passports or risk losing access to basic services, employment, or even freedom of movement.
Putin justifies this by repeatedly saying that Ukraine doesn’t exist. In a 2021 essay, he claimed the idea of a Ukrainian nation has “no historical basis.” In a later interview, he insisted Ukrainians are simply Russians who’ve been misled. His goal isn’t just military conquest; it’s the total erasure of Ukrainian identity.
A Fight for Identity and Justice
As these children are stripped of their heritage and forced to embrace an imposed identity, the world witnesses a chilling attempt to erase a nation’s future. Yet amid this darkness, organizations like Save Ukraine embody resilience and hope, risking everything to restore stolen lives and reunite families.
The question remains: will the international community do enough to hold the perpetrators accountable and protect the children caught in this brutal struggle for identity?
This is not a new atrocity. During World War II, Nazi Germany abducted thousands of Polish and Soviet children under the Lebensborn program. They were sent to Germany, adopted by Aryan families, and stripped of their heritage — many never to return.
Speaking at the UN, Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski drew this grim parallel. “Do you realize,” he asked Russia, “that what you’re doing to Ukrainian children is exactly what the Nazis did to ours?”
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Adam Starzynski
Journalist | Foreign Policy Analyst