Whether you’re a parent or not, can you imagine a more agonizing situation? It’s 2006, you’re living in Ukraine’s Donetsk Region, and you have a baby boy. (You’ll see in a moment why we’re talking about a boy and that this isn’t a gender-neutral story.)
We’ll call him Maksym, and the little guy is everything to you. During his childhood, you read stories to him, you rejoiced when he took his first steps, and you remember fondly how you carefully helped him put his first lost tooth under his pillow, so the tooth mouse would bring him a little gift.
Then in 2014, when little Maksym was eight years old, what was almost the worst thing in the world happened to you. The Russian invaders kidnapped your little boy, and forcibly transferred him to Russia. You aren’t the only parent this happened to. Between 2014 and 2022, Russia forcibly took 200,000 to 300,000 children from Ukraine and transferred them to Russia, according to Jane Alieva, from mamajane.com.ua.
Typically the Russians destroyed the children’s documents, changed the children’s names and birthdates, and made it close to impossible for the parents ever to find their children and get them back.
Having this happen to your child would seem like the worst possible thing that could happen to a parent. However, that’s not actually the worst thing that can happen.
Many of the Ukrainian boys who were kidnapped and brought to Russia in 2014 were sent to military camps where they were brainwashed, according to Alieva. They were taught to admire Russia and to hate their homeland.
“The brainwashing was effective,” Alieva points out. “The kids heard no outside information.” For years, their Russian captors told them that Ukraine was really part of Russia and the Ukrainian government was run by fascists who were oppressing their people and collaborating with Western powers to harm Mother Russia.
Today, Maksym and kids like him are now military age and they’re showing up in Ukraine as part of the Russian military. “The invaders took the young men who should have grown up to protect us and now our children are coming back to Ukraine to kill us,” Alieva explains.
Although there are hundreds of thousands of kidnapped children, only a little more than 300 have been rescued. They’re in deep need of psychological counseling in order to return to life as Ukrainians. MamaJane has retreats where the children and their families can reunite and resume their lives, with the help of mental health professionals.
Alieva hopes to get as many children back as possible because in addition to what this means for their parents, the children are part of a massive case in the European Court for Human Rights. Each child is a potential witness. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime seeks to stop any rescue efforts, in part because every child who crosses the border back into Ukraine is a potential witness against the Putin Regime. Kidnapping children is a war crime, and the more witnesses, the better for Ukraine.
The tragic story of kidnapped Ukrainian children not only highlights the personal agony of countless Ukrainian families but also exposes the profound evil of Russia's actions in turning kidnapped children into soldiers against their own homeland. The story is a stark reminder of Putin’s inhumanity and the urgent need for global awareness and intervention.
Mitzi Perdue is a businesswoman, author, anti-human trafficking advocate, and journalist reporting from and about Ukraine. She has visited multiple times, has many local contacts, and has published more than 100 articles. She holds a bachelor of arts degree, with honors, from Harvard University and a master’s degree from George Washington University.
