Ukraine: Forcibly Deported Children

Johanna Baxter Excerpts

Wednesday 21st May 2025 Westminster Hall

[Johanna Baxter (Paisley and Renfrewshire South) (Lab)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the matter of returning forcibly deported children to Ukraine.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stuart.

I start by welcoming a distinguished guest to the Chamber: Olena Kondratiuk, the Deputy Chair of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, who is here with her colleagues from the Ukrainian embassy to the UK. Her welcome presence shows that our two nations’ great democratic institutions stand united alongside the families of the thousands of stolen children of Ukraine. Today, we commit ourselves to ensuring that our work will continue until every single Ukrainian child is returned home.

Earlier this year, I joined the all-party parliamentary group on Ukraine and UK Friends of Ukraine on a delegation of British parliamentarians to mark the third anniversary of Putin’s illegal and bloody war. It was unquestionably one of the most humbling experiences of my life to meet the brave men and women, unbroken in spirit, who are fighting courageously for their freedom and their homeland. It is an experience that will stay with me forever.

On that visit, I met the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets. What we discussed was devastating: the systematic abduction of Ukrainian children by Russian forces—a grave crime that continues unabated to this day. When Dmytro told me that at least 19,546 Ukrainian children had been stolen, I had to ask him to repeat the number, because I simply could not believe that a crime of this magnitude was taking place before our very eyes and no one was talking about it. The official estimates are horrendous enough, but some other organisations estimate that the total number of children stolen could be much higher. The Russian Federation’s children’s ombudsman has stated that it has “accepted” 700,000 Ukrainian children since the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

When I returned from Ukraine, I made it my purpose to ensure that the scale of this crime receives the attention that it demands in this place. That is why in April, alongside UK Friends of Ukraine, I co-authored a report titled “Returning the Stolen Children of Ukraine”. The report lays out, in no uncertain terms, a detailed timeline of the systematic abduction and forcible deportation of Ukrainian children from Russian-occupied territories. It highlights that President Putin has personally directed Russia’s children’s commissioner to identify and streamline bureaucratic barriers, not to protect children, but to fast-track their placement into Russian families.

The report highlights that Putin’s presidential aircraft is complicit in flying Ukrainian children from occupied Donetsk to Moscow. It highlights the role of federal and regional officials across Russia, occupied Ukraine and Belarus in the deportation of those children and the deliberate erasure of their Ukrainian identity. It highlights that military-style camps have been set up to indoctrinate the children, teaching them basic combat skills and loyalty to the Russian state. It highlights that parents in occupied territories are being coerced into sending their children to so-called summer camps across Russia—camps designed to distance them permanently from their homeland.

[Steve Darling (Torbay) (LD)]

I congratulate the hon. Member on obtaining the debate. I had the honour of joining her on that visit to Ukraine earlier this year, and it was life-changing. The experience of being stolen by Putin’s thugs is also life-changing for these children. Childhood is a very short period of our lives, so I hope the Minister will demonstrate that there is a sense of urgency about getting these children home again.

[Johanna Baxter]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. Indeed, I will come later in my speech to what I hope the Minister will be able to set out.

The report also highlights that Ukrainian children in occupied areas are now being used to support Russia’s drone development and production efforts. Children are being made to assist a war machine.

Since the publication of our report, the situation has only worsened. Russia’s First Deputy Minister of Education recently announced that approximately 53,000 Ukrainian children from occupied territories will spend their summer holidays in camps—not in their homes or with their families, but scattered throughout occupied territories. These are not just numbers; they are children—sons and daughters—taken from their families, their culture and their country. Today’s debate is not just about numbers; it is about the stories of children such as Kira and Margarita.

Margarita was 10 months old—a baby—when she was taken from a children’s home in Kherson. She could not walk or talk, but she was already a target of the Russian regime. She was taken to Moscow on the excuse that she needed medical care, but she did not. She ended up in the arms of a senior Russian politician and close ally of President Putin. He adopted her, changed her name to Marina, changed her birthplace to a Russian city and registered her as his daughter. That baby girl, just months old, had her whole identity rewritten—erased. She is now legally Russian, and the truth is buried. That is not care; it is abduction in the uniform of bureaucracy.

Kira was an 11-year-old girl from Mariupol. At 10, she lost her mother. Then, during the invasion, she watched her father die—shot by Russian forces on their balcony as he tried to save what little they had left. She fled with her father’s partner, walking for a full day to reach her grandmother. Along the way, a landmine exploded, Russian soldiers came and Kira was taken, separated from her loved ones and told she would be sent to a remote orphanage in Russia if no one came to collect her. Weeks later, terrified and alone, she remembered she had a telephone. She called her grandfather. He found her, traumatised but alive, and brought her home. She is 11 years old. She said:

“The Russians took my childhood, my city, and my dad”.

Kira was one of the first children rescued by the Bring Kids Back initiative, supported by the United Kingdom, which to date has helped return 1,307 children, including two brought home over the weekend.

We now have clear and credible evidence, including from the Yale University humanitarian research lab, that approximately 8,400 Ukrainian children have been forcibly transferred to at least 57 so-called re-education camps. They span eight time zones, from occupied Crimea all the way to Magadan in Russia’s far east. Inside those camps, Ukrainian children are indoctrinated. They are told that Russia’s brutal invasion is justified. Ukrainian history is erased from textbooks and mentions of Ukraine as a sovereign nation are removed. This is not just the rewriting of the story, but its deletion. It is a chilling, systematic attempt to dismantle Ukrainian identity, starting with the youngest and most vulnerable.

Russia is not stopping at cultural erasure. In occupied territories, there is mounting evidence that more than 10,000 children are being trained in drone warfare. The training is gamified, turning it into some twisted kind of play, and taught through special engineering classes in which students are instructed in how to build and deploy drones for the Russian military. To make matters worse, occupation authorities in Donetsk and Luhansk have signed co-operation agreements with the Russian Young Army Cadets National Movement, with the goal of scaling up the recruitment of Ukrainian children into pro-Kremlin military patriotic youth organisations. According to the Institute for the Study of War, as many as 11,500 Ukrainian children may already be involved.

The Russian adoption system operates as a tool of administrative erasure; Ukrainian children are absorbed into a bureaucratic structure deliberately designed to erase their cultural and national identity. For those taken in infancy, this practice all but guarantees that an entire generation grow up on Russian soil, utterly unaware of their Ukrainian roots. This is not just occupation. It is indoctrination. It is militarisation. It is a deliberate, state-led campaign to steal Ukraine’s future one child at a time, and it is a war crime playing out before our eyes.

As the House will already know, the International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for President Vladimir Putin and the so-called children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, for the war crime of unlawful deportation of children. As our report sets out, I believe there is sufficient evidence and scope to consider whether charges of crimes against humanity and genocide could also be considered under international criminal law. It is certainly clear that Russia’s actions are flagrant violations of international humanitarian law and international conventions and treaties to which Russia is a party.

To conclude, I am calling for the Government to work with our international partners to take all necessary measures to secure the immediate return of these children.

[Douglas McAllister (West Dunbartonshire) (Lab)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing the debate. Since her visit to Ukraine, she has worked tirelessly to raise the profile of this issue with her report, “Returning the Stolen Children of Ukraine”, on the Floor of the House and again today. She should be congratulated on all her work. On the practical measures that can be taken to help return the stolen children to their families, does she agree that the Minister should consider establishing a UK national day of action to continue her great work and help raise public awareness of this cause?

--- Later in debate ---

[Johanna Baxter]

I completely agree, and I have already called for the Government to recognise a UK day of action, to highlight the profile of this issue to the wider public.

Our report calls for Russia to publish a full register of all Ukrainian children in its custody, as required under the Geneva convention. We are calling for Russia to provide a framework, jointly agreed upon by both parties, for the return of every Ukrainian child who has been forcibly deported. We should also expand our intelligence sharing and support for child trafficking efforts. We need to know where the children are, who has taken them and who is hiding them, because with every day that passes, it is getting harder to bring them home.

I am calling for sanctions to be targeted, biting and relentless on every official, agency and person complicit in these crimes, from the senior politicians to the Russian organisations running re-education camps. I previously called for a special tribunal for the crime of aggression, and I am pleased to see that the UK, alongside 40 partners, has agreed to a framework for that. Can the Minister share more detail on the scope of that tribunal?

This debate is about turning up the volume on this issue. It is about making sure that no one can say, “We did not know.” We need help to amplify this. We need more pressure, more action and more urgency, because with every day that we delay, another child forgets their name.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

--- Later in debate ---

[Johanna Baxter]

I thank every hon. Member who has participated in the debate. I cannot do justice to all the contributions in the time that I have, but the strength and depth of feeling expressed by colleagues across the House should send a strong message to President Putin that this is a heinous crime to which we all object.

The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) reminds us of the urgency of the issue. As he said, justice delayed is justice denied. As I mentioned earlier, this summer 53,000 children are expected to attend summer camps in Russia. We need to ensure that those children return home.

To reiterate the point, there can be no lasting peace in Ukraine without the return of these children. I ask the Minister to again consider sanctions, in particular aligning our sanctions on individuals involved in the forced and illegal deportation of these children with those that have been applied by the US and EU. I also ask for a little clarity—he may be able to write to me afterwards—on the terms of reference for the special tribunal for the crime of aggression and whether those will cover this issue. Also, will the Government continue to investigate whether these crimes meet the definition of genocide under international law?

I thank the Minister for his commitment to get back to me on the national day of action, which would certainly help to raise awareness of the issue. I also plead with the Government to look again at the issue of rehabilitation for these children, who will have gone through severe trauma. If we are able to return them home, they will need a lot of support.

I thank every hon. Member who contributed so powerfully to the debate.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered the matter of returning forcibly deported children to Ukraine.