Kyiv: Ukraine’s First Lady, Olena Zelenska, has passionately called upon world leaders to join hands in ensuring the safe return of thousands of Ukrainian children who have been forcibly taken by Russia.
Belarusian state media recently released photographs depicting dozens of Ukrainian children arriving in Belarus from Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine, intensifying concerns about their well-being and rightful repatriation.
During her address at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Zelenska disclosed a distressing reality: more than 19,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly transferred or deported to Russia or its occupied territories. Shockingly, only a fraction—386 children—have been reunited with their families so far.
According to Zelenska, these innocent children were subjected to a psychological ordeal in Russia, where they were misled into believing that their parents and their home country had abandoned them. Tragically, they were coerced into thinking they were no longer Ukrainian but Russian children.
This urgent plea for assistance comes as Belarus’s state-run news agency, Belta, reported the arrival of 48 children from the Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhia regions in Belarus for a purported “three-week holiday.” The initiative was organized by a Belarusian charity supported by President Alexander Lukashenko, who termed the state-funded removals a “recuperation” program. Disturbingly, these children are shown disembarking from a train, their expressions reflecting the trauma they have endured.
In a significant move earlier this year, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, due to their alleged involvement in war crimes. The accusations include the illegal deportation and transfer of children from occupied parts of Ukraine to Russia.
Belarusian opposition figures later provided the ICC with compelling evidence, indicating that over 2,100 Ukrainian children from at least 15 Russian-occupied Ukrainian cities had been forcibly transferred to Belarus with Lukashenko’s approval.
Ukraine strongly emphasizes that these abducted children are being indoctrinated and stripped of their national identity, condemning it as a form of genocide. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his address to the UNGA, shed light on the appalling situation, highlighting how these children in Russia are taught to harbour hatred towards Ukraine while being disconnected from their families—a clear act of cultural erasure.
Russia continues to deny these allegations, asserting that they have rescued Ukrainian children from the ravages of war. Tragically, more than 500 children have lost their lives in Ukraine since Russia initiated its full-scale invasion 19 months ago, with hundreds of others sustaining severe injuries.
Further exacerbating the gravity of the situation, Ukrainian authorities are investigating over 230 cases of sexual violence by Russian soldiers against civilians, including 13 children. This includes 12 girls and one boy, with the youngest victim being a mere four years old at the time of the alleged crime.
In a heartfelt plea to the international community, Olena Zelenska implores the UN Secretary-General and the entire organization to extend their support and assistance. The goal is to gather critical information about the children taken to Russia and to create safe corridors to evacuate children from the occupied territories. In this time of crisis, she fervently emphasizes that justice for these innocent children is urgently needed.
