The wartime practice of forcibly kidnapping children to “reeducate” and acculturate them has a long and sad history. The Romans would snatch the children of defeated leaders and the upper classes in order to Romanize them. The Ottoman Turks would kidnap Christian boys, usually from their Balkan territories, convert them to Islam, and then employ them as Janissary troops or government officials. The Spanish conquistadores in the Americas would seize indigenous children in order to convert them to Christianity and then use them for slave labor.
Vladimir Putin’s Russian forces have revived this inhumane practice in the course of their invasion of Ukraine. Virtually since the beginning of the war, Russian forces have cruelly taken Ukrainian children from orphanages, foster homes, boarding schools and hospitals, as well as from their homes, with parents being told that the children were being evacuated “for their own safety.” Russia has declared all of these children “orphans,” regardless of whether they actually have Ukrainian families.
Most of the children have been shipped to so-called Russian “summer camps” and “reeducation” centers. These centers, which evoke the reeducation programs of Mao Zedong’s ruthless Cultural Revolution, bombard the children with propaganda against their homeland and impose Russian language, history and ideology on the young Ukrainian-language speakers.
In addition, Moscow has fostered the adoption of Ukrainian children by Russian parents, presumably those whom the Kremlin considers trustworthy. The government is unashamedly open about its adoption policy — in May 2022, Putin signed a decree that streamlined and facilitated such adoptions. Moreover, Maria Lvova-Belova, the state commissioner for children’s rights — whose title is about as meaningful as the human and civil rights provisions of Stalin’s 1936 constitution — boasted about arranging these adoptions.
The Geneva Conventions label the kidnapping of children as both a war crime and a crime against humanity. Accordingly, on Feb. 22, 2023 — exactly one year after Russia invaded Ukraine — the International Criminal Court ruled that “there are reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect [Putin and Lvova-Belova] bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population and that of unlawful transfer of population from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation, in prejudice of Ukrainian children” and issued arrest warrants for both Putin and his minister.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the warrants have not had the slightest effect on either Putin or Lvova-Belova. Nor have they in any way impeded Moscow’s ongoing practice of kidnapping and brainwashing Ukrainian children. Since Putin issued his decree, approximately 20,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly deported from their homeland. The practice continues alongside the fighting.
In addition to the ICC, the U.N. General Assembly, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Red Cross have all protested against Moscow’s brutal treatment of the Ukrainian children. So too have the European Union, the Council of Europe — which has labelled the abductions as genocide — Canada, the U.K., Australia and Japan. In February, President Trump indicated that he felt that he could persuade Putin to release the children
In light of the chorus of international condemnation, and Trump’s own comments, there was considerable hope, particularly on the part of the EU, that Trump would raise the issue when he met with Putin in Alaska last week. Trump did personally hand Putin a letter from First Lady Melania Trump, which stated that “some children are forced to carry a quiet laughter, untouched by the darkness around them — a silent defiance against the forces that can potentially claim their future.” She added, “Mr. Putin, you can single handedly restore their melodic laughter.”
Although the letter clearly hinted at the abductions, it did not explicitly note them, nor did it mention Ukraine, much less the imperative to return the children to their homeland. Nor did Trump specifically raise the issue with Putin. In the meantime, Russia continues with its war crimes, as sanctioned by its dictator.
Trump is now pressing for a trilateral meeting among himself, Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Should such a meeting take place, Zelensky is certain to demand the return of the children to Ukraine, and, given his clear sentiments, Trump should weigh in on the issue as well.
Even if there is no meeting any time soon, then Trump should call upon Putin to halt the abductions and begin the process of bringing the young abductees back to Ukraine. These children deserve nothing less.
Dov S. Zakheim is a senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and vice chairman of the board for the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He was undersecretary of Defense (comptroller) and chief financial officer for the Department of Defense from 2001 to 2004 and a deputy undersecretary of Defense from 1985 to 1987.
