The Power Within: The Kyiv Independent’s first-ever magazine. Be among the first to get it.

pre-order now
Skip to content
Edit post

Ukraine secures return of 11 children from Russia, Russian-occupied territories

by Dmytro Basmat April 3, 2025 5:16 AM 2 min read
Illustrative image: Natalia Kortyak, 41, embraces her children Herman, 10, Valery, 17, and Angelina, 14, at the UNHCR-partnered refugee shelter where they now live on February 21, 2023 in Lviv, Ukraine. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
This audio is created with AI assistance

Ukraine successfully brought back 11 children who had been forcibly taken to Russia as well as Russian-occupied territory, Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak announced on April 2.

The children have been returned home under the President of Ukraine’s initiative, Bring Kids Back UA, according to Yermak.

Since February 2022, at least 20,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted from Russian-occupied territories and sent to other Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine or to Russia itself, according to a Ukrainian national database, "Children of War." Only 1,256 children have been returned thus far.

Dmytro Lubinets, Ukrainian Parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights, estimated that Russia has unlawfully deported up to 150,000 Ukrainian children, while the Children’s Ombudswoman, Daria Herasymchuk, puts the figure at 200,000–300,000.

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children's Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, citing their involvement in the unlawful transfer of Ukrainian children. Russia dismissed the ICC's decision as "outrageous and unacceptable."

A Yale School of Public Health study published on Dec. 3 detailed Russia's systematic program of deporting and forcibly assimilating Ukrainian children.

Under orders from Russian President Vladimir Putin, children were transported via military aircraft in 2022, reclassified in Russian databases as native-born, and subjected to pro-Russian re-education before being adopted into Russian families. Ukrainian children had been transported to at least 21 regions throughout Russia.

Child abductions play a key part of ongoing U.S.-Russia peace negotiations, U.S. National Security Adviser Mike Walz said earlier in March that returning kidnapped Ukrainian children is among several "confidence-building measures" being discussed.

Ukrainian officials have named their return as a key condition for any future peace agreement with Russia.

Putin issued a decree. Now, millions of Ukrainians face an impossible decision
As the U.S. tries to bring an end to the war in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a decree that appears to present Ukrainians living in occupied territories with a choice — submit to Russian law by Sept. 10 or face punishment. The decree, published by the Kremlin






News Feed

6:04 PM

Chornobyl isn’t safe anymore... again.

Chornobyl disaster occurred in the early hours of April 26, 1986, in Soviet Ukraine. Nearly 39 years after the worst nuclear disaster in history, Russia’s brazen attack on the $2 billion New Safe Confinement (the sarcophagus enclosing the destroyed reactor) in February 2025 poses a new potential radioactive danger as engineers race to repair the damage. The Kyiv Independent’s Kollen Post dives into why the restoration is not as simple as it may seem.
MORE NEWS

Editors' Picks

Enter your email to subscribe
Please, enter correct email address
Subscribe
* indicates required
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required

Subscribe

* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
Subscribe
* indicates required
Explaining Ukraine with Kate Tsurkan
* indicates required
Successfuly subscribed
Thank you for signing up for this newsletter. We’ve sent you a confirmation email.