Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office verifies more than 19,000 cases of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia
Ukrainian law enforcement authorities have been verifying information on more than 19,000 cases of the forced transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia. It has been reported that the figure is not final as the analysis continues.
Source: Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine
Details: The Prosecutor General's Office said that the deportation of children from territories temporarily occupied by Russian forces is one of the gravest war crimes documented by Ukrainian investigators.
Russia places children with Russian families, including military households, forces them to take Russian citizenship, teaches them under Russian curricula, sends them to "re-education" camps and in some cases issues draft notices to minors.
Quote: "The materials gathered by the investigation indicate that these actions are of a systematic nature and are followed by measures aimed at changing the children's citizenship, integrating them into a different social environment and assimilating them.
In 2022, to speed up these processes, Russia simplified the procedure with regard to the children transferred from occupied areas of Ukraine to acquire Russian citizenship."
More details: The Prosecutor General's Office describes the actions as a violation of international humanitarian law and a deliberate attempt to erase children's national identity and their ties to Ukraine.
Quote from the Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Lohachov: "We are documenting not abstract figures but the individual stories of children and each established case of their unlawful transfer.
We are building an evidence base for national and international courts, working to bring back children who have been unlawfully removed and ensuring that everyone involved is held to account, without exception."
More details: Ukraine has sent evidence of the illegal transfer of Ukrainian children to the International Criminal Court. Criminal proceedings have also been opened at the national level against those involved.
Background: By September 2025, Russia had forcibly transferred almost 11,000 children to 164 camps in Russia and occupied Crimea since the start of the year.
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