Can you imagine, how we can exchange our children?
In the long and sorrowful history of war's cruelties, few acts cut deeper than the conscription of children into the violence that has already stolen their homes. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has brought forward a grave accusation — that Russia is not merely displacing Ukrainian children, but systematically transforming them into instruments of war against their own people. With at least 20,000 documented abductions and an ICC arrest warrant already naming Vladimir Putin, the question before the international community is whether law, conscience, and economic leverage can be brought to bear before more young lives are consumed.
- Zelenskyy publicly accused Russia for the first time of abducting Ukrainian children, indoctrinating them, and deploying them as soldiers against their own countrymen — a charge that rises to the level of war crimes under international law.
- The scale is staggering: at least 20,000 children documented as taken, with Zelenskyy warning the true number is likely far greater, and Russia framing the program as humanitarian aid for war orphans.
- Yale researchers found that Gazprom and Rosneft — Russian state energy companies — helped finance the reeducation of over 2,000 Ukrainian children, with funds traceable in part to U.S. sanctions relief on Russian oil.
- Zelenskyy is pressing U.S. lawmakers to reimpose targeted sanctions, arguing that temporary relief extended twice since March is inadvertently bankrolling the very program stripping Ukraine of its children.
- The path to resolution is narrow: sanctions relief remains in place, the children cannot legally be exchanged as prisoners of war, and Washington has yet to act — leaving the question of political will unresolved.
In an exclusive interview with CBS News, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy leveled a charge he had never before made publicly: Russia is systematically abducting Ukrainian children, subjecting them to ideological indoctrination, and sending them to fight as soldiers against their own people. The accusation, if substantiated, constitutes a war crime under international law.
Zelenskyy described the mechanism in stark terms — children taken from Ukrainian territory, taught to despise their homeland, then pushed onto the battlefield. "Can you imagine, such young Ukrainians, young boys, come to the battlefield and kill Ukrainians," he said. His government has documented at least 20,000 such abductions, and he believes the real number is considerably higher. The International Criminal Court had already issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin in 2023 on related grounds — the unlawful deportation of children from occupied territories. Moscow has consistently called the program humanitarian, releasing images of Putin and program director Maria Lvova-Belova with children in their care.
A financial thread runs through the abuse. Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab concluded in March that Russian state energy giants Gazprom and Rosneft helped fund the reeducation of more than 2,000 Ukrainian children — and that U.S. sanctions relief on Russian oil, extended twice since March to stabilize global energy markets, had created a windfall for those same companies. "Gazprom and Rosneft are the first known Russian Federation-affiliated corporate entities related to child deportation that are currently making money from U.S. consumer spending," the report found.
Zelenskyy has been pressing U.S. lawmakers to reimpose targeted sanctions on Russia's child abduction operations. He also drew a sharp legal line: abducted children cannot be exchanged for prisoners of war, because they are civilians — not combatants — regardless of how Russia has chosen to use them. "We can't exchange civilians," he said. Whether the evidence he has presented will move Congress to act before the sanctions relief expires remains the open and urgent question.
In an exclusive interview with CBS News, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made a stark accusation: Russia is systematically abducting Ukrainian children, subjecting them to indoctrination, and forcing them onto the battlefield to fight their own countrymen. It was the first time he had publicly leveled this charge, and it carries the weight of potential war crimes under international law.
Zelenskyy said his government possesses evidence of the abductions, though he did not elaborate on its nature or scope. What he did describe was the mechanism: children taken from Ukrainian territory, taught to despise their homeland and its people, then sent to fight as soldiers. "When these children grow up and they push these boys to the battlefield," he said, his voice carrying the weight of the contradiction. "And Ukrainians, can you imagine, such young Ukrainians, young boys, come to the battlefield and kill Ukrainians." The accusation extends beyond the already-documented Russian state program of transporting Ukrainian children to camps for what Moscow calls reeducation or "Russification."
The International Criminal Court had already moved on related grounds. In 2023, the court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin himself, citing what it termed the unlawful deportation of children from occupied territories. The Kremlin has consistently reframed the program as humanitarian—a response to the war's orphans—and has released photographs of Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the program's head, with children in their care. But the scale and intent tell a different story. Zelenskyy's government has documented the abduction of at least 20,000 Ukrainian children, and he suspects the true number is far higher.
Research from Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab, which investigates war crimes, added a financial dimension to the abuse. In March, the lab concluded with high confidence that Gazprom and Rosneft, both Russian state-owned energy companies, had helped finance the reeducation of more than 2,000 Ukrainian children. The timing was damning: the Trump administration had issued temporary sanctions relief on Russian oil sales in an effort to stabilize global energy prices. That relief, the Yale researchers found, had created a windfall for the very companies bankrolling the child deportation program. "Gazprom and Rosneft are the first known Russian Federation-affiliated corporate entities related to child deportation that are currently making money from U.S. consumer spending," the report stated.
When pressed on whether the sanctions relief was inadvertently fueling the abduction scheme, Zelenskyy did not mince words. "Lifting sanctions is a help for the soldiers of Russia," he said. The broader principle at stake is one of international humanitarian law: children are non-combatants and cannot be exchanged for prisoners of war. Yet Russia, Zelenskyy argued, has been treating them precisely as combatants, offering to trade abducted children for captured soldiers. "Can you imagine, how we can exchange our children?" he asked. "We can't. First of all, it's out of the law. We can't exchange civilians."
Zelenskyy has been in conversation with U.S. lawmakers about reimposing stricter sanctions specifically targeting Russia's child abduction operations. The sanctions relief, extended twice since March at the request of Asian nations seeking oil supplies, remains in place. "I hope that Congress will find the possibility again to put sanctions on Russians, because of the children," Zelenskyy said. "We spoke with congressmen, we spoke so many times about it. I hope that they will make this step." The question now is whether the evidence he has presented, and the documented scale of the abductions, will move the needle in Washington—and whether the temporary sanctions relief will be allowed to expire.
Notable Quotes
They taught these children to hate their native country, to hate native people. And Ukrainians, can you imagine, such young Ukrainians, young boys, come to the battlefield and kill Ukrainians.— President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
Lifting sanctions is a help for the soldiers of Russia.— President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on temporary U.S. sanctions relief for Russian oil
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
When Zelenskyy says he has evidence, what form does that evidence take? Documents? Testimony from rescued children?
He didn't specify in the interview. But the Yale researchers had concrete data—they traced corporate funding through Russian state companies. That's a different kind of evidence than testimony, and it's verifiable.
Why would Russia do this? What's the strategic purpose of training Ukrainian children as soldiers?
Manpower, partly. But also something deeper—it's about breaking the connection between a child and their homeland. If you can make a Ukrainian child hate Ukraine, you've won something the military can't measure in territory.
The sanctions relief seems like a policy mistake in hindsight.
It was issued for oil prices, not with Ukraine in mind. But once you know where the money is going, the calculus changes. Zelenskyy is arguing that the U.S. inadvertently became a financial partner in the abduction program.
Can children actually be exchanged for prisoners? Is that something Russia has actually proposed?
Zelenskyy says Russia has offered it. International law forbids it—children are civilians, not combatants. But the fact that he's having to explain why you can't trade children for soldiers suggests it's happening.
What happens to these children if Ukraine wins the war?
That's the question no one can answer yet. Some may be recoverable. Some may have been so thoroughly indoctrinated that repatriation becomes a trauma in itself. It's a generational wound.