Russia is trying to force Ukrainian children to become Russian, with reeducation, forcible transfers and camps

A fence featuring 20,000 stuffed teddy bears, each representing a Ukrainian child abducted by Russia, on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on April 23, 2026. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images “Crimes against humanity.” That’s what an investigation in March 2026 called Russia’s “deportation and forcible transfer” of Ukrainian children and “their enforced disappearance.” The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine wrote that “thousands of children have been deported to the…