Zelenskyy Demands Russia Return Ukrainian Children In New International Campaign

At age 16, Vladyslav Rudenko was captured by Russian forces and held in children’s camps in Russia-occupied Crimea and Kherson for nine months.

Unlike some 20,000 other Ukrainian youths, Rudenko was rescued by the NGO Save Ukraine and returned to Ukrainian-controlled territory after nine months in captivity.

It's the fate of those thousands, many of whom remain in Russian-occupied areas -- in what Moscow calls “rehabilitation centers” -- that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and other Ukrainian officials say they are now focused on.

"This crime must be thoroughly investigated, and those responsible held accountable," Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said over the weekend as part of the launch of the ChildrenAreNonNegotiable campaign.

"A just and lasting peace requires the return of all these Ukrainian children home."

US President Donald Trump has made ending Europe's longest conflict since World War II a top foreign policy priority since taking office three months ago.

While the talks have lurched between several contentious issues, Ukrainian officials have kept the repatriation of all of those taken from Ukraine a major negotiating point.

Ukrainian officials have accused Moscow of orchestrating what some groups have called a "systematic deportation" of children out of Ukraine and into Russia-controlled parts of the country, or even further to destinations in Russia and its ally, Belarus.

Evidence gathered last year by RFE/RL's Belarus Service and Schemes, the investigative unit of RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, indicated camps were being used to teach young Ukrainians to identify with concepts that both Moscow and Minsk promote.

That came after a November 2023 study by the Yale School of Public Health's Humanitarian Research Lab that deemed Ukrainian schoolchildren's escorted trips to Belarus were coordinated by Belarus and Russia as part of the two countries' so-called Union State.

The study said the process involves "re-education," which it defined as "the promotion of cultural, historical, societal, and patriotic messages or ideas that serve the political interests" of both regimes.

Military training, including by Interior Ministry troops, occurred with "at least six groups of children," according to the report.

Rudenko told RFE/RL's Ukrainian service earlier this month that during the time he was held by Russian authorities his daily routine had an obvious orientation.

“We woke up to the Russian anthem, raised the flag, did exercises. After breakfast, they told us what had happened in Russia overnight. Literally. Then we went to watch Russian movies," he said, recalling his regiment while held in camps.

According to the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab more than 8,400 children from Ukraine have been systematically relocated to at least 57 facilities: 13 facilities in Belarus and 43 facilities in Russia and Russia-occupied territory.

According to Ukraine’s official government portal childrenofwar.gov.ua, a much higher number -- around 20,000 -- have been taken away and only 1,300 children have been successfully returned.

“We remind the world that without the return of the children abducted by Russia, the war cannot truly be considered over,” a statement published by Zelenskyy's office during Easter said.

Washington has supported Kyiv on the issue of repatriating children, saying last month it remains committed to supporting the exchange of prisoners of war, the release of civilian detainees, and the return of forcibly transferred Ukrainian children.

However, Ukrainian officials are worried recent budget cutting moves by the Trump administration could significantly hinder investigations into where the children have been moved and efforts to enable their return.

Meanwhile, Karolina Hird, deputy team leader and an analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, an American nonprofit research group, warned that Ukrainian teenagers forced to accept Russian citizenship may face conscription into the Russian army and could be forced to fight against their own people, a violation of international law.

“Negotiations and an end to the fighting without consideration for the deported children will empower Russia to continue to commit these crimes with absolute impunity,” Hird wrote.