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Russia’s War on Children: Abducted Ukrainians Now Forced to Fight in Putin’s Army
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Russia has begun conscripting Ukrainian children—many abducted from occupied territories—into its military once they turn 18, according to Ukrainian officials. This revelation signifies Russia’s strategic and psychological warfare against Ukraine, with potentially thousands of abducted minors now being used to bolster Moscow’s military efforts, as was reported on July 24.
Since 2014, an estimated 35,000 children have been taken from Ukraine’s eastern occupied territories. These children were often abducted at gunpoint, initially from orphanages and later directly from their families. The program has grown considerably since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, The Times states.
Now, according to Andriy Yermak, President Zelenskyy’s Chief of Staff, Ukrainian authorities have gathered hard evidence showing that these abducted children, upon reaching the age of 18, are being conscripted into Russian battalions.
“Putin’s goal is he doesn’t want Ukraine to exist. The Russians want to destroy the new generation of the Ukrainians, and they are building new soldiers against the country where they were born. It is terrible,” Yermak said in an interview.
These abducted teenagers, once recruited, face a grim future. After receiving limited education in Russia’s re-education camps, they undergo military training in combat schools, including cadet programs designed to prepare them for active service.
According to Ukrainian officials, this program serves two purposes for Russia: solving its military manpower crisis and using the abducted children as a tool for psychological warfare against the Ukrainian people.
The abductions and forced conscription are in clear violation of international law and the Geneva Conventions, which protect children in armed conflict. The situation is so dire that it led to an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin by the International Criminal Court in 2023 for war crimes, with Russia’s Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, also facing charges for her role in the program.
In an emotional plea, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to make the return of all abducted children a red line in any peace talks, signaling the severity with which Ukraine views these actions.
“We will not forget these children. They are our future,” Zelenskyy emphasized.
Ukrainian officials are working with international organizations like the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, which is gathering documentary evidence on Russia’s child abduction and conscription practices. Nathaniel Raymond, the executive director of the lab, described the systematic nature of the program, calling it “likely the largest child abduction in war since World War II.”
One of the kidnapped children, 19-year-old Vlad Rudenko, who was abducted in October 2022, shared his harrowing experience.
“We were made to sing the Russian anthem every morning, then physical training—jumps, squats, running, crawling—and we also learnt how to shoot,” he recalled.
“I was lucky because I was eventually rescued. But some of my peers are now fighting against their own people,” Rudenko concluded.
In light of these atrocities, the Ukrainian government launched the “Bring Kids Back” campaign to raise global awareness and appeal for international support. The campaign has become a focal point in Ukraine’s efforts to push for justice and bring attention to the violation of children’s rights by the Russian state.
Ukrainian officials have also rejected Russia’s offer to exchange the abducted children for Russian prisoners of war, calling it a dangerous precedent that would turn the children into hostages.
“I’m not sure Europeans and Americans understand the true nature of what’s going on here. This is a systematic, industrialised network of child trafficking, a revival of Stalin’s pioneer programme,” Nathaniel Raymond warned.
Earlier, it was reported that a state-sponsored network channels hundreds of thousands of Russian schoolchildren into drone development programs that ultimately feed the military’s unmanned aerial vehicle forces.
