Russia is using “tens of thousands of children” from Ukraine as “tools of war,” a British official has said.
In a statement to the UN Security Council, Stephen Doughty, the Minister of State for Europe, North America and the Overseas Territories, accused Russia of separating Ukrainian children from their families as well as robbing them of “security and peace.”
“Last September, I met children who had been forcibly taken from occupied Ukrainian territory by Russian forces,” he said. “They told me how they were separated from their families, with new identities imposed upon them.”
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow has faced widespread allegations of forcibly transferring Ukrainian children from territories seized by its forces.
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In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights Maria Lvova-Belova, citing the “war crime of unlawful deportation” of Ukrainian children.
“I have a picture in my office, painted by a Ukrainian child who had escaped Russia, now undergoing therapy to deal with the ordeal they have endured,” Doughty continued.
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“Russia is doing this to tens of thousands of children – using them as tools of war.”
The minister similarly condemned Moscow for disrupting the daily lives of Ukrainian children living outside of the occupied territories.
“Children all over Ukraine are enduring days and nights marked by air raid sirens and blackouts, by fear and loss,” he said.
“This is taking a severe toll on their mental health. A generation is being robbed of the security and peace that every child in this world deserves.”
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As of February 24, 2026, Ukraine has managed to return 2,003 children since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, according to Kseniia Korniienko, senior lawyer at the Regional Center for Human Rights ... According to the data, during the fourth year of the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war, Ukraine managed to return 804 children. This makes up 40% of the total number returned since February 24, 2022. Kseniia Korniienko emphasizes that such statistics show that efforts to return children intensified over the past year.
According to the data, over the past four years Ukraine has managed to find nearly 51,000 missing children. Among those who have not yet been located are 2,294 minors. Because of Russia’s war, 685 children have died and another 2,373 children have been injured. There are 23 known cases in which children suffered from sexual violence. It is worth noting that these are not all cases. Officials form the databases from received testimonies, and not all illegal actions against children become public. There is not enough information about what is happening in the occupied territories. According to Bring Kids Back UA, 1.6 million Ukrainian children are currently under Russia’s control. ...