An investigation by the Financial Times has revealed that images and personal details of Ukrainian children, who were deported to Russia during the early months of the 2022 invasion, are appearing on adoption websites linked to the Russian government.
Using image recognition tools, public records, and interviews with Ukrainian officials and the children’s relatives, the newspaper identified four Ukrainian children on usynovite.ru.
One child is listed under a new Russian name and a different age from their Ukrainian documents, while another was listed under a Russian version of their Ukrainian name. There is no mention of their Ukrainian background.
These children were taken from state care homes in towns across southern and eastern Ukraine, which came under Russian control in 2022. Ages of the children range from eight to 15 years old.
Tracked by the FT, these children have ended up in regions near Moscow, such as Tula, and close to the Kazakh border in Orenburg. One child was taken to occupied Crimea.
Seventeen more matches found by the FT on the adoption website were confirmed as Ukrainian children in a recent New York Times investigation, all of them from a Kherson children’s home.
The Kremlin did not respond to requests for comment on these findings.
According to Ukrainian authorities, nearly 20,000 children have been forcibly taken to Russia from occupied territories since 2022 and only 389 returned back home.
Read more:
- Czechia to pay one-time travel grant for Ukrainian refugees’ return home
- NYT: Russians illegally move Ukrainian children from Kherson foster home to annexed Crimea
- Newborns held hostage: Luhansk occupation authorities force citizens to obtain Russian in exchange for their children
