Fate of thousands of Ukrainian children kidnapped by Russia hangs in the balance of talks

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly raised the abducted children as a top priority.

KYIV, Ukraine — Armed with machine guns, balaclava-clad Russian soldiers burst into 16-year-old Vladislav Rudenko’s home in the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine and gave him half an hour to gather some things.

“I was home alone. I packed my things in a panic,” the teenager told NBC News, describing the morning in October 2022, eight months after Russian forces captured the city, when he said the soldiers forced him to get into a car and drove away “in an unknown direction.”

It was the start of an eight-month nightmare as the teenager became part of a systematic effort by Russia to relocate and re-educate thousands of children from Ukraine, in some cases forcibly adopting them while sending others to military training camps.

At a meeting with President Donald Trump and several European leaders at the White House last month, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy raised the issue of Ukraine’s "abducted children.” His comments came three days after Trump met with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Alaska for talks on ending the war.

While little progress has been made toward a ceasefire since then, Mykola Kuleba, the founder of Save Ukraine, a leading nongovernmental organization supporting people trying to secure the return of their children from Russia, insisted world leaders’ “focus must remain on children, not just land.”

Kuleba, whose organization says it has rescued more than 750 children from Russia and Ukrainian territories occupied by its forces, says the push for their removal and re-education came from the highest levels of the Kremlin.

The International Criminal Court has accused Putin of the war crime of overseeing the unlawful abduction and deportation of children from Ukraine to Russia, and in March 2023 it issued a warrant for his arrest. The ICC has also accused Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, Putin’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights, of committing similar crimes.

“They force these kids to be Russian, to be Russian soldiers,” Kuleba said in a telephone interview last month, adding: “The Russian regime has a clear intention to annihilate Ukrainian identity.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/world/ukraine/fate-thousands-ukrainian-children-kidnapped-russia-hangs-balance-talks-rcna225074

Melania Trump says she's working with Putin on reuniting abducted Ukrainian children

Oct. 10, 2025

Ukraine's leader has estimated that more than200,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russiaor territories it controls since the war began more than three years ago.

WASHINGTON — First lady Melania Trump said Friday that she has been working with Russian President Vladimir Putin on reuniting Ukrainian children who were believed to be kidnapped into Russia during the war.

Speaking from the White House, she referred to a letter sent to Putin in August regarding children affected by the war, and said that he wrote back "signaling a willingness to engage with me directly."

“President Putin and I have had an open channel of communication regarding the welfare of these children," the first lady said. "For the past three months, both sides have participated in several back-channel meetings and calls, all in good faith. My representative has been working directly with President Putin’s team to ensure the safe reunification of children with their families between Russia and Ukraine."

Trump said that in the last 24 hours, eight children were reunified with their families.

“Three were separated from their parents and displaced to the Russian Federation because of front-line fighting," she said. "The other five were separated from family members across borders because of the conflict, including one young girl who has now been reunited from Ukraine to Russia.”

She said that she has also raised concerns about Ukrainians who were minors at the time they were displaced during the conflict, but have since become adults while living in Russia. "Given the dangers of traversing this war-torn region, their safe return requires coordinated assistance," she said. "Accordingly, Russia has agreed to rejoin the individuals who have turned 18 within a short period of time. Again, this remains an ongoing effort. Plans are already underway to reunify more children in the immediate future."

NBC News reached out to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office for comment.

Russia has taken thousands of Ukrainian children since it invaded Ukraine and started the war in February 2022. Zelenskyy has brought the issue to the attention of Trump administration officials and President Donald Trump himself.

Zelenskyy estimated in June that more than 200,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia or territories it controls since the war began more than three years ago. Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s children’s rights commissioner, has estimated that around700,000 children have been displaced since Russia's 2014 invasion of Crimea.

Research recently published by the Yale School of Public Health Humanitarian Research Lab said that Ukrainian children have been taken to more than 200 facilities across Russia, where they are given "re-education" courses focused on Russian patriotism or forced to participate in military training.

The first lady hasn't had as much of a public-facing role as in her husband's first term, and it's unusual for first ladies to get involved in foreign affairs. But when it comes to foreign policy, her spokesman Nicholas Clemens told NBC News: “The First Lady’s impact on her husband’s decision-making process is unparalleled. She possesses an unmatched level of influence compared to any adviser or cabinet member. Mrs. Trump can discreetly influence policy in a manner that is rarely observed by the public due to her singular position.”

Last month, she met with Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly after Trump had hand-delivered his wife's letter about children to Putin. A few days later, Zelenskyy brought a letter from his wife for Trump to deliver to Melania Trump, thanking her for writing to Putin.

Melania Trump and Zelenska discussed the plight of children affected by the war in Ukraine, after the American first lady launched an initiative focused on working with spouses of heads of state on the well-being of young people around the world, Zelenskyy said.

Melania Trump was “pleased” to meet with Zelenska, according to a spokesman for the first lady, and appreciates that “they have a shared vision — advancing the development of children.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/white-house/melania-trump-says-working-putin-reuniting-abducted-ukrainian-children-rcna236896

>>23848997

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