Since the launch of the Bring Kids Back UA initiative, more than 2100 children illegally taken by Russia have been returned to Ukraine. Since the beginning of 2026, 150 Ukrainian children have been successfully returned. This was reported by the president’s press service.
This is reported by Kyiv24
International Reaction and Next Steps
President Volodymyr Zelensky listened to representatives of the Bring Kids Back UA initiative – Oleksandr Bevz and Maksym Maksymov – regarding the results of their activities. According to them, a special commission under the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine continues to analyze and verify each case of child abduction in detail.
“We specifically discussed the support of our efforts at the level of international organizations. Recently, for the first time at the UN level, the deportation and forced relocation of our children were classified as a crime against humanity. This is very important, and this work must continue. We are preparing for a meeting of the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children at the ministerial level, which will take place on May 11 in Brussels. We expect broad representation, concrete decisions, and practical support from our partners,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram.
Scale of Abduction of Ukrainian Children
According to official data from Ukraine, during the full-scale war, over 20,000 Ukrainian children found themselves in Russia and occupied territories. At the same time, the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, does not rule out that the actual number of illegally taken children may be around 150,000. The Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada for Children’s Rights, Daria Gerasimchuk, estimates this figure to be even in the “hundreds of thousands of children, approximately 200-300 thousand.”
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian children’s ombudswoman Maria Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of committing war crimes, including forced deportations and the illegal relocation of populations, including children, from the occupied territories of Ukraine.
In July 2023, Russian children’s rights commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova stated that since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russia has “accepted” about 4.8 million residents of Ukraine, among whom over 700,000 are children. According to her, most of these children allegedly arrived with their parents or relatives.