Nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children have been forcibly transferred to Russia since Vladimir Putin’s invasion in 2022, and subjected to military training, sexual violence and detention in camps, according to a new report.
The report, based on 200 documented cases of recently returned children and young people, found that 41 per cent were forced to take part in weapons training or join paramilitary youth movements such as Yunarmiya.
Another 39 per cent experienced forced displacement to far-flung locations in Russia, Crimea or Belarus, with 17 per cent detained in filtration camps or police stations and 10 per cent subjected to torture or cruel treatment.
Evidence compiled by War Child UK and Save Ukraine has found that Putin’s most likely long-term goal is to encourage or coerce Ukrainian children into their armed forces, and to participate in combat against their own country.
The Foreign Office announced on Wednesday that eight individuals and three organisations would be sanctioned over their involvement in the deportations, described by the then foreign secretary David Lammy as “despicable”.
Speaking to psychologists, six per cent of children reported experiencing or witnessing conflict-related sexual violence, while included threats of rape, forced undressing and testimonies that minor girls have been raped by supervisors in camps.
For 17-year-old Kseniia, the Russian occupation of her hometown Vovchansk in the Kharkiv region meant that she and her 10-year-old brother Serhii were forced to be separated for the first time.
Both orphans, Serhii was taken to the ‘Medvezhonok’ children’s camp in Russia, while Kseniia was pressured into attending a state-mandated trade school in a border town.
Her lessons were designed to erase Ukrainian identity, while her brother was eventually placed with a Russian foster family who informed him that his country had been destroyed, and that his sister had abandoned him.
Similar to the experiences of other Ukrainian children, he was bullied and humiliated by teachers in school, and gradually stopped sending desperate messages begging for help to Kseniia.
“Every Monday, we would have mandatory lessons and sing the Russian national anthem, I didn’t want to sing it,” she told The Independent. “After this anthem, they would also lift the flag and it would be a big ceremony and we would have lessons about telling us Russia is the best country in the world, it’s a paradise on earth.
“Russia was good, Ukraine was bad, if they hadn’t attacked Ukraine would have attacked Russia, Ukrainians were planning it, that all of this is orchestrated by the West and Russia is fighting the West.”
The report has found that 55 per cent of abducted children were subjected to pro-Russian indoctrination, including bans on the Ukrainian language and revised history lessons.
In several cases, children have been offered better grades or manipulated into believing they are less likely to receive military draft papers if they join paramilitary groups.
Families have been tricked into allowing their children to attend summer camps - only for them to be subjected to intense military training at one of the 200 camps researchers have identified as holding Ukrainian children.
One 16-year-old girl said: “Every day felt like we were being shaped into something we weren’t. They didn’t treat us like kids. They wanted us to behave like their soldiers.”
After initially refusing to allow her children to join Russian schools, one anonymous mother was left “terrified” after Putin’s troops began punishing families who did not obey.
She said: “In our village school, the Russians set up a real torture chamber: a pit, rods, chains, electric shocks. After the torture, people were brought to the hospital barely alive.”
The deportation, indoctrination and militarisation of Ukrainian children is now believed to be the largest campaign of child rights violations in Europe since the end of the Yugoslav wars.
After several months of being held in Russia, Kseniia was eventually able to track down her brother with Save Ukraine’s help, but found him terrified at the prospect of returning alongside her.
“I can’t go with you,” he had told her. "They told me Ukraine is destroyed. That I’ll be left to starve. That you don’t really want me.”
He was eventually persuaded, with the siblings travelling for several “tense days” in May 2023 to return to Ukraine, where they have now started to rebuild their lives.
However, tens of thousands of children remain under Russian control which seen many of them issued draft papers to join the military.
While the Ukrainian government has confirmed 19,546 cases of forcible transfers, data from Yale University believes the real figure to be around 35,000.
Kseniia added: “My life turned upside down is how I would described it. It ended up not the way I planned or dreamed, I never thought I would live in Kyiv. Save Ukraine inspired me to become a journalist and now I’m studying.
“With my story I want to share the experience I had and be the voice of those who are still stuck in Russia, and to people who don’t know what is happening to Ukrainian kids. I feel strong now and I’m a fighter but there are other kids who are more vulnerable. Some people don’t have enough strength to fight until the end, I’m sad about the fact that Russia is abusing these kids, especially young boys training them to be soldiers.”
Helen Pattinson, CEO of War Child UK said: “Protecting children in conflict is not optional; it is a fundamental obligation under international law. At War Child, we work to defend the rights of all children caught in conflict.
“It’s a terrifying experience for a child to be separated from their families, let alone be stolen by another state. The world cannot look away. We’re calling for immediate and impactful action from world leaders to return these children to their homes as the absolute bare minimum.”
With Putin increasing the budget for patriotic education from $50m in 2022 to $459m in 2025, the NGO Save Ukraine, charity War Child and think-tank Human Security Centre have warned that Ukrainian children are being “deliberately targeted”.
Mykola Kuleba, CEO of Save Ukraine added: “Save Ukraine has already rescued more than 800 children from Russia and the occupied territories. In each child’s eyes, we see fear; in their voices we hear stories of being forced into military camps, punished for speaking Ukrainian or showing any trace of their heritage, and subjected to relentless psychological and physical abuse.
“Their very identities are being systematically erased in order to turn them into 'Russian children'. Boys as young as 18 years old are being coerced into fighting for the Russian army and killed in combat.
“These are not isolated cases. 1.6 million Ukrainian children are being held as hostages in Russia and occupied territories. We must stand together and demand with one voice: Help us let our children go.”
Nathaniel Raymond, Executive Director at Humanitarian Research Lab continued: "This report is critical to understanding Russia's widespread and illegal militarization, indoctrination, and abuse of Ukraine's children.
“The testimonials in this report not only raise the voices of these specific children, but the thousands of other children still held by Russia. This report emphasizes the urgent need for Ukraine's children to be returned as a precondition to any end-of-war negotiations."
