UKRAINIAN CHILDREN’S FATE OR ATTEMPT TO RUIN THE PEACE DIALOGUE?

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Russian Ambassador Writes Amid West-Kiev ‘Disinformation’ Campaign  

Since the beginning of the Special military operation, on behalf of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, the Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Mrs. Maria Lvova-Belova, has been working to reunite Ukrainian children with their parents and close relatives. This activity is exclusively humanitarian in nature.

Demilitarization is one of the main goals of the Special military operation, to stop the Ukrainian regime to blow the Russian cities where the civil population including children is suffering so much. According to the Official Representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Maria Zaharova, “this task will be accomplished for the sake of children. We do not divide them by nationality. Our militaries do not ask passports when they save children”. The Russian side considers the process of children’s taking out as an evacuation in order to save their life.

All this time the Kiev regime has actively disseminated rumors about the “abduction” of Ukrainian children and their “deportation” to Russia. The Ukrainian officials, international organizations, and pro-Ukrainian non-profit organizations regularly declare an exorbitant number of children allegedly affected by “forced displacement”. Due to the lack of the Ukrainian statistics the figures have constantly varied – from 200,000 to one and a half million children who are allegedly being held by the Russian Federation (according to the agreements signed between the Russian Federation and the Donbas People’s Republic, the Lugansk People’s Republic, the Kherson Region and the Zaporozhye Region on September 30, 2022, these regions are part of Russia). For the first time, information about “20 thousand deported children” was announced by the Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for Children’s Rights, D. Gerasimchuk, in April 2023.

Currently, during the public discussion of the “children’s topic”, the Ukrainian side refers to this number, and on the portal “Children of War”, a platform created on behalf of the Office of the President of Ukraine, the number of 19,546 children who have been “deported or forcibly displaced” is recorded. Meanwhile, no one has seen the full list of the mentioned minors.

There is a reason to believe that the figure of “20,000 children” was fixed by the Kiev regime during the first months of the Special military operation against the background of a general chaos, the unstable situation and the cases of loss of communication between family members who were separated by the front line and fighting. Subsequently, many families were successfully reunited on their own, in Russia, Ukraine or in third countries, but the data about the children remained the same and became the subject of active speculation by the Ukrainian side.

In this regard, the question naturally arises about where the parents of these children are and why they are not looking for them. The “export” of such a significant number of minors should have caused a similar number of appeals from their legal representatives, but in practice they are significantly fewer.

Thus, from the very beginning, the Commissioner, Mrs. Maria Lvova-Belova, receives lists of allegedly wanted children from various sources with varying degrees of reliability and verification. Our activities are not limited solely to the process of family reunification, but include work to establish all the circumstances of the stories of the wanted children and their lives. The information sent to the Commissioner in the above-mentioned lists is carefully studied. Until now, the information regarding 1,249 citizens has been processed, which is at odds with the number of wanted children mentioned by the Ukrainian side.

It is noteworthy that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), with which Russia has established an active cooperation, was appealed only a few times regarding family reunification. With the scale of “abductions” and “deportations” declared by Western countries and Ukraine, a situation in which the ICRC would not receive appeals for family reunification is impossible. The ICRC’s extensive practice shows that even in conflicts of a much smaller scale, it receives requests for reunification. In the case of Ukraine, there are practically no such.

The Commissioner also receives lists in which applicants are completely absent or do not meet the established requirements, there are appeals from the part of neighbors or family friends.

As an example, during the talks in Istanbul (Turkey) in June 2025, the Russian delegation was given a list of only 339 persons. But there was no information at all about who is looking for them, which may cast doubt on the fact that someone from among close relatives is looking for the children. In addition, 67 people from the abovementioned list have already reached the age of majority. It is also worth to mention that in accordance with the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation, reunification is carried out only if there are appropriate legal grounds, as well as requests from a parent or other close relative of the child. Also in June 2025 the Russian side proposed to the UN Security Council to adopt the President statement in order to commit the fact of transmission of the list and the readiness of the Russian Federation to work out it in close interaction with Ukraine. But this practical step was blocked by the delegations of the Great Britain, France, Greece, Denmark and Slovenia. It is obvious that Ukrainians as well as other Western countries pay more attention to the baseless accusations rather than to the children’s fate.

Often, when checking information, it becomes known that the allegedly wanted children are either already with their parents or other close relatives, or have never been lost. Many of them actually live in the same places and towns.

In addition, the number of “19,546 children” has not decreased for a long time, despite the fact that through official channels the Ukrainian side periodically reports on different numbers of “returned” children. So, as of November 14, 2025, according to the portal “Children of War”, 1,791 children returned to Ukraine.

It is not possible to disclose detailed information about the minors and in this regard, to report anything about the real circumstances of the displacement of these children, whether it was in fact, or about genuine stories, and not those stories that are declared by the Ukrainian side and their partners to the media.

Thus, it seems that the so-actively promoted “children’s issue” is being actively politicized and exploited by the Ukrainian side and the collective West in order to manipulate public opinion, distort objective information and discredit the actions of the Russian Federation aimed only at protecting children.

Disinformation about family reunification activities, including the unwillingness of the Russian Federation to facilitate this process, is also actively spreading these days. Although, since 2023, a channel of interaction has been organized with the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights – D. Lubinets – on information exchange and organization of the reunification process. The established mechanism allows us to work out all cases that come to the Commissioner’s office and resolve situations taking into account the best interests of children. It is important to note that the reunification process takes place in both directions, in Russia and in Ukraine, and these activities are being implemented with the active support of international partners – the ICRC and the Holy See. The State of Qatar has also played a significant role over the past two years, including on the issue of verifying reunification cases on the territory of their Embassies and providing logistic assistance.

It should be noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin supported Melania Trump’s initiative to take part in the fate of the children affected during the special military operation in Ukraine. As a result, the First Lady of the United States joined our regular efforts to reunite children with their loved ones.

We are confident that the established communication channel with the American side will allow not only to help the affected families, but also to inform the world community about the real situation.