President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 28 at the White House, where they discussed how to resuscitate peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. As the United States weighs making another run at a peace deal, it must ensure that the return of the 20,610 Ukrainian children deported or forcibly transferred to Russia is part of any agreement. First lady Melania Trump has personally brokered five rounds of reunifications, bringing 30 children home, and urged Russia and Ukraine “to intensify their efforts to ensure the safe return of every child.”
This is not just a humanitarian cause, but an essential precondition for ending the war because Ukraine will not abandon its children. While Kyiv and Moscow will have to hammer out a deal at the negotiating table, Washington should use sanctions to punish the perpetrators of these mass abductions, creating pressure for Russia’s victims’ return as part of any agreement.
Recommended Stories
Congressional leaders from both parties share Melania Trump’s concern for Ukraine’s missing children. Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) co-sponsored the Abducted Ukrainian Children Recovery and Accountability Act, which the president signed into law in December 2025. This bill supports Ukraine’s investigation and tracking of missing children, helps them reintegrate with their families, and supports prosecutions of the Russian perpetrators. As Klobuchar said, “Now that our bipartisan bill is law, our country will provide necessary support to track these children, support those who return home, and hold the perpetrators accountable.”
Since 2022, the Kremlin has used a vast network of institutions to abduct and Russify Ukrainian children, including the Office of the Russian President, the Russian Orthodox Church, and state-controlled energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft. Moscow is trying to erase these children’s Ukrainian heritage by giving them Russian names, falsifying their birth certificates to show they were born in Russia, forcing them to become Russian citizens, and denying them contact with their families. In the words of Grassley, Russian President Vladimir Putin “kidnapped thousands of Ukrainian children to brainwash and Russify them, trying to destroy their cultural identity and heritage.” Such policies call to mind the dark days at the end of World War II, when the Soviet Red Army rolled into Ukraine and tried to suppress Ukrainian identity through compulsory re-education and indoctrination. My husband’s own family fled this effort at Russification, coming to the U.S. after President Harry Truman signed the Displaced Persons Act of 1948. Now, nearly six decades later, history is repeating itself.
IRAN JUST PUT MELANIA AND BARRON TRUMP ON ITS KILL LIST. AMERICA HAS ONLY ONE VIABLE RESPONSE
The Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, and the United Nations Human Rights Council have deemed Russia’s actions war crimes. Moscow rejects this characterization, saying it is rescuing orphaned and abandoned children. The facts, however, belie Moscow’s claims. A team at the Yale University School of Public Health has documented in detailed studies cases of Ukrainian children being denied communication with family, Moscow’s refusal to provide Kyiv a list of children taken to Russia as required by international law, and Russia’s efforts to cover up forced deportations and illegal adoptions.
Any enduring peace between Russia and Ukraine must include the return of Ukraine’s children. Since 2022, Zelensky has called the return of all children an essential condition for peace. And while negotiators try to jumpstart peace talks, Congress is in a position to help raise the cost to Russia of committing these crimes. The bipartisan Countering Russian Trafficking Act would treat Russia’s deportations and forcible transfers of Ukrainian children as a form of human trafficking and allow the U.S. to sanction every individual and entity complicit in these acts. To quote Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), a co-sponsor of this bill, “The systematic abduction and forceable transfer of Ukrainian children by Russia is one of the most egregious ongoing human trafficking crimes of the 21st century. It is time we use our strongest tools to counter it.”
Michele Kernitsky is an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies with 26 years of service in the CIA, State Department, and White House.
