A bipartisan group of senators introduced a resolution requiring the return of all Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russia as a prerequisite for any peace agreement to end the war in Ukraine.
The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) officially recognized this activities as an act of genocide, referencing Article 2(e) of the 1948 Convention on Genocide.
As of March 2025, nearly 1.6 million Ukrainian children remain currently under Russian control, either having been deported to Russia or forced to remain in occupied territories.
The resolution urges “that all Ukrainian children abducted by the Government of the Russian Federation be returned before finalizing any peace agreement.”
The bipartisan initiative was led by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley and Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar and joined by Republicans Roger Wicker, Joni Ernst, and Rick Scott, and Democrats Dick Durbin and John Fetterman.
The document denounces Russia’s kidnapping and forced relocation of Ukrainian children while highlighting how the invasion has heightened children’s vulnerability to trafficking, exploitation, forced labor, sexual abuse, malnutrition, physical harm, psychological damage and fatalities.
Ukrainian authorities have received at least 19,546 confirmed reports of unlawful deportations and forced transfers of Ukrainian children to Russian territory, Belarus, or Russian-occupied Ukrainian areas as of 16 April 2025. Ukraine and its partners have managed to return 1,274 abducted children from these territories.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets claimed that the actual number of Ukrainian children illegally taken to Russia may reach approximately 150,000 since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
“Russia’s abduction and Russification of Ukrainian children demonstrates the intent of the Government of the Russian Federation to erase the Ukrainian nation and identity,” the resolution argues.
Russian authorities have modified adoption laws since the 2022 full-scale invasion to facilitate forced adoptions of Ukrainian children, raising them as Russian citizens while erasing their Ukrainian names, language, and identity. Russia also recruits child soldiers and maintains a state-sponsored pattern of human trafficking.
The resolution specifically references Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner, who admitted to abducting and forcibly transferring Ukrainian children and facilitating forced adoptions to Russian families.
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Lvova-Belova for the crime of deportation of Ukrainian children.
Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andrii Yermak responded to the resolution, stating:
“No peace agreement with Russia can be concluded without the return of all abducted Ukrainian children,” Yermak wrote.
In an addition to the resolution, Republican Senator Grassley characterized Putin’s invasion as an “inhumane and unprovoked attack” that triggered Europe’s largest conflict since World War II.
“He [Putin] has kidnapped thousands of children to brainwash and Russify them in an attempt to destroy their cultural identity and heritage. The United States ought to demand these children are returned before inking a deal to end the war in Ukraine,” Grassley said.
Earlier, a Yale Humanitarian Research Lab conducted a large-scale investigation that revealed the system behind the Russian state-sponsored program to forcibly deport Ukrainian children from occupied territories, erase their Ukrainian identities, and indoctrinate them as “good Russian soldiers.”
These children are subjected to pro-Russian propaganda, military training, and are often placed with families of Russian officials or military personnel.
The operation, personally directed by Vladimir Putin and executed by Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, involves the use of presidential resources, new laws to strip children of Ukrainian citizenship, and bureaucratic mechanisms to facilitate rapid adoption by Russian families, often with complete identity changes.
The program meets the international legal definition of genocide, as it aims to permanently sever Ukrainian children from their heritage.
