Russian kidnapping of Ukrainian children sparks congressional debate on aid

The official number of children confirmed kidnapped from Ukraine by Vladimir Putin’s regime is 20,000, but Moscow has bragged that their forces have trafficked over 700,000 Ukrainian children.

Think about that.

Right now in Ukraine, minor children are being stolen from their families, given away to strangers in a foreign country, and are unlikely to ever return home.

It’s a war crime of historic proportions, but nothing is being done to stop it.

If the war in Ukraine doesn’t alarm you, the abduction of children should.

Since Russia’s invasion in early 2022, their forces have stolen babies and toddlers from orphanages, seized children from schools and summer camps, and kidnapped kids from their parents at gunpoint.

Children whose parents were killed by Russian attacks are rounded up and forced into the unlawful grip of Russia, while others are fed lies that their families no longer want them.

Some victims are so young that they will never remember their real identities.

Once the children enter Russia and occupied territories, including Luhansk and Donetsk, officials force Russian citizenship, provide them with Russian passports and indoctrinate them to serve the Russian cause.

Despite the fact that the abduction of children constitutes a war crime under the Rome Statute, Russia is not only continuing the practice — they are celebrating it.

Putin’s own children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova — who is supposed to protect the rights of children – boasted that she illegally “adopted” one of the stolen children.

As the mother of two boys, it is impossible to imagine anything more cruel than having your child forcibly taken without recourse.

There’s no Amber Alert in a war zone and Russian courts would never return children to their rightful parents.

I traveled to Ukraine in February with a group of former government officials, driving nearly 1,300 miles to observe what was really happening on the ground.

We visited apartment buildings in Dnipro, Kharkiv and Kiev that were struck by Russian missiles, killing scores of civilians, and walked through a damaged, abandoned grade school where textbooks and shoes lie covered in rubble.

We observed a maternity ward destroyed in a missile attack and later met children who were forced to attend school in a subway tunnel.

It quickly became clear that Russia intentionally targets civilian infrastructure, not just to take lives, but to kill the spirit and national identity of the Ukrainian people.

Putin isn’t just seizing land, he’s attempting to erase Ukrainian heritage and training a new generation of Russian loyalists and fighters.

In eastern Ukrainian districts that are now occupied by Russia, children have been forced into indoctrination schools run by members of Russian intelligence.

Students are given new Russian maps with fake borders, forced to read textbooks filled with falsehoods and are provided tactical military training.

It’s a page right out of Nazi Germany that would make Hitler proud.

Perhaps no one knows this better than neighboring Poland — which has welcomed millions of Ukrainian refugees.

They understand that Putin does not intend to stop with Ukraine.

I reached out to a former State Department colleague I last saw in Warsaw as he gathered information about Russian war crimes, including the abduction of Ukrainian children.

He introduced me to the Helsinki Foundation, a Warsaw-based group that tracks such incidents.

With a small team and limited resources, Helsinki and its network of volunteers interview Ukrainian refugees, gather personal details and document their stories.

Every element of this work is challenging.

For Ukrainians to escape Russian occupied areas, they must first make the long journey through Russia and Belarus before reaching freedom in Poland.

Helsinki officials tell me they hope to share these reports with Polish and international prosecutors, but that takes time, technical expertise and government resources.

The U.S. should do all it can to support groups like Helsinki, including sending personnel and technical assistance to help track and report human rights abuses.

In the meantime, Republicans and Democrats, including President Biden, must collectively call out Putin for his government-sanctioned kidnapping.

We can also take additional diplomatic measures, such as closing Russian consulates in the U.S. or restricting visas.

These steps will certainly get under Putin’s thin skin.

But the reality is that unless Congress passes aid for Ukraine, crimes against children will continue.

Heather Nauert is a former US State Department Spokesperson and Acting Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs