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Children Taken From Kherson Orphanage Listed for Adoption on Russian Website, Investigation Finds
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Four children who were taken from a Kherson orphanage in 2022 are now being listed for adoption on a Russian state-run website.
This information comes from a joint investigation by Current Time, a broadcaster created by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and The Reckoning Project.
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The profiles of the children were still active on the portal “usynovite.rf” as of March 2026. The listings do not indicate that the children are from Kherson or that they are Ukrainian.
For security reasons, the identities and personal details of the children have not been publicly disclosed, although the journalists involved in the investigation have access to this information.
According to the investigation, Russian occupation authorities removed children from the Kherson orphanage in two stages—two children in September 2022 and 46 more on October 21, 2022. Sources cited by the journalists said that 10 of the children have since been returned to Ukraine, while many of the others remain in foster families in Russia.
Previous reporting has documented similar cases. Journalists from the Russian outlet Important Stories reported that one of the children taken from the Kherson orphanage, Margarita Prokopenko, was adopted by Russian lawmaker Sergey Mironov, leader of the “A Just Russia” party.
According to Radio Liberty, citing official Ukrainian data, more than 20,000 Ukrainian children have been taken to Russia or occupied territories since the start of the full-scale war.
Ukrainian Human Rights Commissioner Dmytro Lubinets has suggested the real number could be around 150,000, while Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights Daria Herasymchuk has estimated that “several hundred thousand children, that is somewhere between 200,000 and 300,000,” may have been affected.
The findings add to a growing body of international evidence documenting the forced transfer of Ukrainian children. An independent United Nations commission has concluded that Russia’s deportation and relocation of children from occupied territories constitute both crimes against humanity and war crimes.
“Compelling evidence concerning the deportation and transfer of a total of 1205 children from five oblasts in Ukraine, verified by the Commission, has led it to conclude that these acts amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes of deportation and forcible transfer of children,” the report states.
The commission also found that Russian authorities systematically failed to inform parents or legal guardians about the whereabouts of their children, often keeping families in uncertainty and preventing reunification.
According to the report, no effective mechanism was established to facilitate the return of the children. Instead, many were placed in long-term arrangements with families or institutions inside Russia. Throughout 2022, Russian officials promoted adoption by Russian families as the preferred outcome, further complicating efforts to locate and return the children to Ukraine.
The investigation comes amid growing evidence of the scale and organization behind the transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia. A recent study by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab found that Russian state-owned energy companies played a direct role in these operations.
According to the report, companies including Gazprom and Rosneft financed the transportation and so-called “re-education” of more than 2,000 Ukrainian children from temporarily occupied territories between 2022 and 2025.
Researchers identified at least 2,158 children from the Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions who were taken to six facilities in Russia and occupied Crimea. These included camps such as Prometey, Signal, Kuban Niva, Art-Kvest, Sputnik, and the A.V. Kazakevich Children’s Health Camp.
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