Kathrine Frich
No child should ever become a casualty of war.
Yet in conflicts around the world, the youngest and most vulnerable often pay the highest price.
As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drags into its fifth year, Ukrainian officials say an entire generation has been scarred, with thousands of children removed from their homes and sent across the border.
Claims of mass deportation
Russia has forcibly relocated or deported around 20,000 Ukrainian children since the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets said at an international conference on the rule of law in Kyiv on February 23.
As reported by Deutsche Welle, Lubinets stated that under international humanitarian law, all Ukrainian children currently physically present in Russia should be considered victims of deportation or forced displacement.
“These are just 20,000 Ukrainian children about whom Ukraine has found information,” Lubinets said.
He argued that Moscow’s broader objective amounts to genocide against the Ukrainian people, alleging that children are being treated as “military resources for mobilization.”
Orphanages emptied
Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska told the conference that teenagers from occupied territories have been sent to militarized camps for what she described as “re-education,” while adults have been drafted into the Russian armed forces.
According to Zelenska, there are confirmed cases of young Ukrainians who later fought against their own country, with some reported killed in combat.
“The Russians evacuated our children from the occupied territories, entire orphanages at a time. They took children whose parents had been killed in Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities that they (the Russians – ed.) had destroyed,” Zelenska said.
Efforts to bring them home
Lubinets said that under President Volodymyr Zelensky’s initiative “Return the Children of Ukraine,” 2,003 deported children have been brought back from Russia or Russian-occupied areas.
He noted that some of the returned minors had been accused by Russian authorities of possible terrorist activities against the Russian army.
The ombudsman highlighted Qatar’s role in mediation efforts, saying its involvement helped secure the return of 83 children.
He also thanked the United States, particularly First Lady Melania Trump, for raising the issue in a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to Lubinets, the most recent group of children returned to Ukraine on February 13, 2026.
Sources: Deutsche Welle, LA.lv
