The fate of thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russian forces during the nearly four years of sustained war hangs in the balance of the Trump administration’s efforts to end the war.
One of Russia’s underlying missions of the war has been to forcibly abduct countless Ukrainian children, bringing them to Russia or Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory, and force them to undergo extensive efforts to remove their Ukrainian identity systematically.
Due to the realities of war-torn Ukraine, there is no exact tally for the number of Ukrainian children taken by Russian forces, though the total is believed to be around 20,000. The Ukrainian government launched the “Bring Kids Back UA” fund to raise international awareness and support.
Their plight will come to the forefront when the Senate Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, chaired by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), holds a hearing on Wednesday. Ukrainian Ambassador Olha Stefanishyna, Mykola Kuleba of the Save Ukraine organization, Maksym Maksymov from the Bring Kids Back group, Kateryna Rashevska of the Regional Center for Human Rights, and Nathaniel Raymond of the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab will testify before the subcommittee.
Raymond told the Washington Examiner ahead of the hearing that he will view this as a successful hearing if there’s a “bipartisan consensus” that “the U.S. should be supporting financially and with technical expertise efforts to find where the kids are in real time, and support negotiation and exfiltration efforts to get them back.”
A previous Yale research lab report from September tracked more than 200 locations Ukrainian children were sent to that span from the Black Sea to Siberia, an area that stretches across more than 3,500 miles and more than 50 regions of Russia and Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory.
In some cases, the Ukrainian children are given military training, furthering Russia’s objective of erasing their Ukrainian identity.
The Yale research lab has been among the foremost trackers of abducted Ukrainian children, though the Trump administration announced earlier this year its intent to cut off their federal funding. The group is now funded through private donations, which Raymond said were largely made up of “angry Ukrainian American grandmothers.”
U.S. first lady Melania Trump has advocated the release of the abducted Ukrainian children and has worked to make that happen. Earlier this year, she announced she had secured the release of eight Ukrainian children.
Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, traveled to France earlier this week for a global meeting regarding the plight of Ukrainian children.
“The journey does not end with the child returning home. Psychological and social rehabilitation is needed,” she said. “Ukraine is creating special programs for this purpose. We are grateful to every person in the world who hears the pain of children and helps us defend justice.”
The International Criminal Court announced arrest warrants in March 2023 for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for children’s rights in the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, who they said shared responsibility for these child deportations.
In October, the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations unanimously voted to advance legislation, backed by Graham, that would designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism if the abducted children are not returned.
Wednesday’s hearing is part of the Trump administration’s latest push to end the conflict despite its previously unsuccessful attempts.
U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff visited Moscow on Tuesday with a new peace plan hashed out among himself, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Jared Kushner, and a Ukrainian delegation that met them in Miami, Florida, last Sunday.
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The “updated and refined peace framework” replaces the initial 28-point plan floated last month, which was widely panned for including several Ukrainian concessions that it has explicitly and repeatedly refused, though it’s unclear if it will be enough to satisfy Putin.
Russian leaders have demurred on the Trump administration’s effort to end the conflict diplomatically, barring an agreement that meets the goals they’ve yet to accomplish on the battlefield.