UKRAINE: 11 children rescued from the territories occupied by Russia despite Trump

Human Rights in the World

UKRAINE: 11 more children rescued from the territories occupied by Russia despite Trump

President Trump promised to help make sure deported Ukrainian kids are returned home by Russia but ended the funding of a U.S. University tracking the missing children…

HRWF (03.04.2025) – 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.

Trump Funding cuts hamper tracking efforts

On 19 March, President Trump said during a phone call with President Zelenskyy that he would “work closely with both parties to help make sure those children were returned home”, according to a press release issued by the White House.

But, at the same time, the Trump administration ended a government-funded initiative led by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab (Yale HRL) that tracked the children. 

The organization issued a scathing report about the camps in December 2024, which included footage of Ukrainian teenagers in Russian camps engaging in weapons training.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine included a systematic campaign of forcibly moving children from Ukraine into Russia, fracturing their connection to Ukrainian language and heritage through “re-education,” and even disconnecting children from their Ukrainian identities through adoption. Children documented by the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) range in age from four months to 17 years, and many have families looking for them in Ukraine. 

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 spokeswoman for Eurojust, Europe’s agency for criminal co-operation, said on 18 March it had been informed by Washington that it was ending its support for the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine, which was collecting evidence to prosecute Putin, among others.

A group of Democratic lawmakers has called on the administration to restore the Yale HRL program and impose sanctions to punish officials in Russia and its ally Belarus involved in forcefully taking away Ukrainian children from their country and russifying them.

Findings of Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab (Yale HRL)

  • More than 19,000 children from Ukraine have been deported to Russia. Only 1,236 children have been returned to Ukraine. The actual number of children remaining in Russia is likely significantly higher.
  • Yale HRL has identified more than 8,400 children from Ukraine who have been systematically relocated to at least 57 facilities––including 13 facilities in Belarus and 43 facilities in Russia and Russia-occupied territory.
  • Russia targeted vulnerable groups of children for deportation, including orphans, children with disabilities, children from low-income families, and children with parents in the military.
  • There are documented cases in which children were physically abused, denied communication with their families in Ukraine, and given inadequate access to food and care after being taken to Russia.
  • Russia has refused to give Ukrainian authorities a list of children taken to Russia–– as required by international law –and has engaged in various activities to conceal their forced deportation and illegal adoption of children from Ukraine.
  • The kidnapping and indoctrination, including military training, of children from Ukraine was ordered by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and executed by Russia’s federal, regional, and occupation officials. Russia’s security services and criminal investigative agency systematically targeted vulnerable groups of children and transported them to Russia, where regional officials subjected them to re-education and listed children for adoption. Russia’s Investigative Committee has set recruitment quotas and designated a cadet school for children from Ukraine, creating a direct pipeline into federal security service.
  • Hundreds of children––including those with families––were taken from Ukraine and illegally placed for adoption in Russia or placed in Russian families. In at least one case, Russia’s government re-issued the child’s birth certificate, changing the child’s name and place of birth. Such changes in personal information present significant barriers to identifying the child for return.

These actions may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity and were the basis of the Biden-led U.S. Government atrocity determination in 2023. Ensuring that children are returned prior to any negotiations for the end of the war protects these children––and children in the future––from being taken as hostages during conflict.

You can read HRL’s previous reports on Ukraine’s children here: Humanitarian Research Lab Publications.

Photo: Children who managed to return from the temporarily occupied territories to Ukraine in March. Credit: Dmytro Lubinets/Telegram

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