Melania Trump has done it again. On the eve of Easter, the First Lady helped rescue seven Ukrainian children from Russian captivity, bringing her tally up to 26. Without fanfare, Mrs. Trump is the only first spouse actively negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Her valiant efforts are key to remedying this vital moral issue.
Not only has Russia abducted 20,000 children since 2022, but it has also indoctrinated–and is in the process of militarizing–another 1.6 million Ukrainian children who live in Russian-occupied Ukraine. Moscow’s crimes are ongoing, which means that we can stop them, rescue children, and bring the perpetrators to justice.
As of April 2026, the Ukrainian Ministry of Justice has verified 20,570 cases of forcible transfer and illegal deportation of children by the Russian authorities. Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab has identified 210 locations where Ukrainian children have been taken. There, children were subjected to re-education at more than half of the facilities and underwent militarization in at least 18% of them. These findings point to a premeditated policy carried out across many locations–not isolated abuses.
The UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine recently concluded that Russia has committed crimes against humanity by deporting, forcibly transferring, and enforcing the disappearance of children. The Commission also confirms its previous March 2023 finding that Russian authorities have committed war crimes by unlawfully deporting and transferring children and delaying their repatriation. The Commission has so far verified the deportation or transfer of 1,205 children. Four years on, 80% of those children have not been returned. The Commission confirmed that Russia has failed to establish a system facilitating their return and instead has focused on long-term placements of the children with families or in institutions in Russia.
Any returns of children are being achieved in spite of formal diplomatic channels. As of March 2026, the Ukrainian government, civil society, and international partners have returned 2,047 children to Ukraine. Only 104 children – or 5 percent – have been returned as a result of mediation work.
Meanwhile, Putin is intensifying his sinister efforts to strip Ukrainian children of their identity and subject them to forced Russification. The Kremlin has built infrastructure to indoctrinate not only abducted Ukrainian children, but those who live under its occupation.
We can see the Kremlin’s intent in its budget numbers. Russia’s expenditures on youth policy in the federal budget increased by 84 percent from $513 million in 2022 to over $1 billion in 2026. Why? Russia wants to increase the proportion of patriotic youth from 40% to 70% by 2030 by involving children in patriotic mass youth associations and movements. Using Ukrainian children is a core part of the Kremlin’s push to funnel children into Russia’s army. For context, the budget of one paramilitary organization – Movement of the First – is comparable to the annual income of one of Russia’s poorest regions, such as Kalmykia. Almost 400,000 Ukrainian children have been enrolled in the “Movement of the First,” a state-run paramilitary youth organization that was created in 2022 to bolster the Russian military campaign and ensure loyalty to the Kremlin.
As of 2024, at least 479 cadet classes were established in occupied Ukraine by Russia. Under the guise of “health” or “recreation,” children are transferred to so-called “summer camps” and exposed to propaganda and military programming, and forced to do manual labor. These details are based on interviews with Ukrainian children who were taken to these camps under deception. More than 312,000 Ukrainian children were sent to such camps during the 2025 summer campaign alone.
What can be done? In 2026, the State Department launched a $25 million program to track and rehabilitate Ukrainian children. A great move–but Congress needs to ensure that this effort becomes a sustained policy, not a one-off decision.
Moscow prioritizes the reeducation of Ukrainian children, turning them into Russian soldiers. Washington’s budget should reflect our commitment to their rescue from Russian oppression.. Justice cannot wait. But there is another reason to invest in rescue: every child returned is a witness. Their testimonies are critical to establishing who is responsible for these heinous crimes and holding them accountable.
There are three practical ways Congress can center its Ukraine policy on the return of abducted children.
First, in addition to funding rescue efforts, we must cut off Russia’s finances. Russia’s immoral system of abduction, illegal adoption, forced re-education, and militarization of Ukrainian children is a state-run operation that depends on funding from the Russian government and Russian state oil companies. The only way to stop it is to cut off its finances. The largest source of revenue for Russia’s state budget is the oil and gas sector. Currently, there are nine bills in Congress that impose sanctions on the Russian oil industry. Congress must move at least one of them. Passing the Shadow Fleet Sanctions Act and the DROP Act would have the greatest impact. Without cutting Russia’s state budget, we cannot stop Russia’s abduction and militarization of Ukrainian children. A new report shows the involvement of Russia’s largest energy companies – Gazprom and Rosneft – in the illegal transfer and re-education of at least 2,158 Ukrainian children. Neither company has been sanctioned by the US, making American taxpayers indirectly involved in the business of sponsoring Russia’s system of abductions and reeducation of children by the sale of oil.
Second, Ukraine’s children cannot be turned into bargaining chips. On the contrary, as President Trump continues to negotiate for an end to the war, we must do everything in our power to ensure that the return of Ukrainian children remains non-negotiable.
Third, Congress should reconsider its engagement with the representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church, which collaborates with Russian governmental agencies to deport and host abducted Ukrainian children and then assists in the indoctrination and militarization of those trapped under Russian occupation. The Russian Orthodox Church is a pliant arm of the Kremlin, not an independent religious institution. Yet members of its clergy are welcomed on Capitol Hill to talk about religious freedom, while Ukrainian children are being banned from practicing anything but Russian Orthodoxy. This is outrageous and anti-American.
The First Lady is right to demand the return of Ukrainian children, a preeminent moral issue of our time. Godspeed, Mrs. Trump! Thousands of children are counting on you.
