Ukraine has seen its child population decline by millions since Moscow launched its war on Ukraine in 2014, due to deportation, occupation, displacement abroad and direct war casualties, Mykola Kuleba, founder and head of Save Ukraine, told VOA.
Kuleba's NGO, Save Ukraine, rescues children from Russia and Russian-controlled territories.
Russia’s full-scale invasion that began in 2022 triggered the largest displacement crisis in Europe since World War II. Although many Ukrainians have returned home, more than five million remain abroad, according to UNHCR, most of them in Europe, many of them children.
An estimated 1.5 million Ukrainian children remain in territories under Russian control.
According to Ukraine`s Children of War portal, as of October 16, 2026, Ukrainian authorities have recorded 20,651 children as deported or forcibly displaced and 2,689 as returned. These figures reflect documented cases, not necessarily the full number of children affected. Also, as of mid-October, 762 children have been killed and 2,952 injured in the war, while 2,362 remain missing, according to Ukrainian authorities.
Ukrainian children under Russian control are subjected to indoctrination and militarization aimed at molding them into future Russian soldiers, Kuleba says, which includes those forcibly transferred to Russia.
Russian officials claim that Russia is not stealing Ukrainian children but saving them.
However, Article 78 of Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions sets strict conditions for evacuating children to a foreign country during an armed conflict. Such evacuations must be temporary and justified by compelling reasons related to the children’s safety, health or medical needs, and require the written consent of their parents, legal guardians or other persons responsible for their care. The article also requires the authorities arranging the evacuation and where appropriate, the receiving country’s authorities, to create an individual record for each child and send it to the International Committee of the Red Cross to help facilitate the child’s return to their family and country.
In March, the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine concluded that Russian authorities committed “the crimes against humanity of deportation and forcible transfer, as well as of enforced disappearance of children.”
The commission found that the actions were a part of a policy conceived at the highest level and systematically executed. Only 20 percent of the children in the cases of forcible transfer investigated by the commission have been returned.
Through missions whose operational details it keeps confidential, Save Ukraine says it has rescued more than 1,800 children, according to the organization’s website. Its work forms a part of a broader effort coordinated by Ukraine president’s initiative Bring Kids Back UA, which also includes the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children with 52 members – countries and international organizations – five other Ukrainian NGOs, and the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights.
The efforts of U.S. First Lady Melania Trump have also helped to reunite 34 children with their families, according to an August 17 White House statement.
“When Moscow completely denies the abductions and refuses to return the children, the efforts of the first lady of the United States are very helpful in bringing these children home,” Kuleba told VOA in a recent interview.
He said that every passing day makes the return of children more difficult.
“Russian propaganda shapes the information environment in which people live and often turns families and children into adherents of the Russian Empire. They begin to fear Ukraine and believe that there are supposedly Nazis in Ukraine, and that the West has joined forces with the Nazis to destroy Russia,” he said.
Children are also subjected to military training intended to prepare them for future combat, Kuleba said.
A 2025 investigation by Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, identified at least 210 facilities in Russia and occupied Ukrainian territory to which children from Ukraine had been taken. The researchers found evidence of militarization in at least 18 percent of these facilities.
“Children who return tell us that Russian military personnel come to their schools to teach them how to handle weapons and provide tactical medical training," the children's activist said. "Starting at around age 14, many are taken to the military camps in Russia, where three-week programs teach them how to throw grenades and blow up tanks. One 15-year-old girl who was taken to one of these camps showed me how to set up a tripwire with a grenade. She also described how other children practiced parachuting. They are genuinely being prepared for combat.”
Some children that Save Ukraine was trying to bring back have been sent to the frontlines and even died, Kuleba told VOA. He warned that Russia`s policies pose a threat beyond Ukraine because children are being raised to hate not only Ukraine but also the United States and other Western countries.
After children return, Save Ukraine helps them reintegrate into Ukrainian society. The organization operates rehabilitation centers across Ukraine, with a reported capacity of 800 beds.