Stolen futures: how Russia destroys Ukrainian children’s identity

These documentary materials present testimonies of children and families who have endured occupation, deportation, separation, violence, and systematic human rights violations.

We see real faces and hear real voices.

But the scale of this crime spans entire generations.

Since 2014, Russia has pursued a systematic policy aimed at erasing the identity of Ukrainian children in temporarily occupied territories and beyond.

The project examines documented cases of deportation and forcible transfer, changes in legal status, indoctrination, and militarization of children as components of this policy.

This is not a series of isolated incidents, but a systemic practice with long-term demographic, political, and security implications.

1.6 million

Ukrainian children

are living under occupation or have been forcibly taken to Russia.
19,546

cases of deportation

have been officially recorded by Ukraine — despite an almost complete information blackout imposed by Russia.
1,156

children

have been rescued by Save Ukraine as part of President Zelenskyy’s Bring Kids Back UA initiative. Among them — 195 orphans.

The real scale of the crime is much greater.

Mothers waiting for their children

These portraits were taken before the start of rescue missions to bring stolen children home.

The mother looks into the camera, holding a phone with a photograph of her child. The portrait captures the rupture of a family bond — a moment between separation and reunion.

As of today, approximately 1.6 million Ukrainian children remain under occupation.

Thousands have been deported or forcibly transferred to the territory of Russia or to regions under its control. As of 2023, Ukraine has officially documented 19,546 cases of unlawful deportation — despite an almost complete information blackout. The real scale is significantly larger. Some children have been transferred deep into Russian territory, to remote regions including Siberia and the Far East.

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against senior Russian officials for the unlawful deportation and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children.

While under Russian control, a child:

— is granted Russian citizenship through a simplified procedure, with personal data altered in state registries;
— is integrated into the Russian education system;
— is isolated from the Ukrainian linguistic and cultural environment;
— is subjected to sustained ideological influence.

In a number of cases, children are placed in Russian foster families or under guardianship. Parents often have no information about their child’s exact whereabouts. Communication is restricted or completely severed. Rescue procedures are complex, prolonged, and dangerous.

Vlad (17)

Kherson region

14-year-old Vlad was abducted in 2022 and taken to occupied Crimea by Russian military forces without his mother’s consent. The occupiers exploited the moment when his mother was arranging the funeral of her own mother, who had been killed in Russian shelling, and lured the teenager out of the house.

They promised to take him “for a 10-day vacation,” but instead Vlad spent nearly eight months under Russian control. He was first held in a sanatorium in Yevpatoria, then transferred to Lazurne in occupied Kherson region and forcibly enrolled in a military academy.

At the military college where Vlad was compelled to study, children were forced to sing the Russian national anthem, follow the Russian curriculum, and participate in militarized activities. Vlad attempted to protest — he removed the Russian tricolor from the flagpole. For this, he was placed in a 2×3 meter isolation cell without communication for nearly a week. It was there, for the first time in his life, that he experienced suicidal thoughts.

Children’s phones were regularly inspected. When an armed commissioner found a photo of Vlad’s father in a Ukrainian Armed Forces uniform, he took the boy to an undisclosed location and threatened him with “a different kind of conversation” if he did not delete all Ukrainian contacts. The occupiers forbade him from speaking or writing in his native language, attempting to erase his identity completely.

When his mother arrived to retrieve her son, she was detained for six days, interrogated with a polygraph, and transported blindfolded to an unknown location, where she was held in a 2×2 meter basement cell. Before being allowed to leave, they were forced to record a video statement expressing loyalty to Russia. Only then were their documents returned and permission to depart granted.
Diana (14), Yana (11), and Nikita (10)

Kherson region

Russian occupiers separated Diana, Yana, and Nikita from their parents for six long months, holding them in a camp in Crimea.

When Nikita got into a fight with older boys who supported Russia, the camp administration placed him in a psychiatric hospital as punishment. There, nurses forced him to swallow tranquilizers and administered unknown injections. For an entire month, the child was kept in a medical ward in a semi-conscious state in order to make him “obedient” and break his will to resist. Two other children in the same “re-education” room were also forced to take medication.

The parents were told their children might not be returned and could be transferred to Skadovsk or Henichesk, or that they should retrieve them independently through Russian territory. During the separation, their mother lost 10 kilograms due to constant stress and fear that she would never see her children again. After their return, the family reunited in Kyiv. However, the mother was afraid to speak publicly about her son’s forced “treatment” due to the risk of reprisals.

In April 2023, while the family was at a market, their home was destroyed by shelling. They lost their house and are now trying to rebuild their lives after everything they endured.
Liza (17)

Kherson

In the autumn of 2022, during the occupation of Kherson, Russian authorities removed Liza from her local college and transported her to Crimea without her mother’s consent, under the pretext of a “holiday.” The promised two weeks turned into three months of forced stay in Yevpatoria.

She was later transferred to occupied Henichesk and compelled to continue her studies under the Russian curriculum. When she resisted, she was threatened with being locked in a basement.

In dormitory, where she lived, Russian military personnel supervised the teenagers. The occupiers prohibited students from locking their room doors so that nighttime inspections could be conducted without obstruction. Liza and other Ukrainian children were required to attend Russian classes; during history lessons, “nothing good was said about Ukraine.” She was issued a Russian mobile phone number and encouraged to obtain Russian citizenship — she refused.

Russian authorities labeled Liza an “orphan,” despite the fact that her mother was alive. In doing so, they created obstacles to her return. In total, she spent approximately eight months under forced control and pressure in occupied territories before she was able to return to Ukraine.
Serhii (17)

Kherson region

In 2022, at the very beginning of the occupation, Russian soldiers nearly killed Serhii when he and a friend climbed a hill with a phone to catch a signal. The boys narrowly escaped after coming under fire from the occupiers.

In October, a teacher collaborating with the occupation authorities ordered Serhii to pack his belongings and leave for a “two-week vacation” at the Druzhba camp in Yevpatoria. His mother forbade the trip and demanded details, but that same day mobile service disappeared in the village. The following morning, Serhii and other students were forcibly transported to Crimea without their families’ consent.

Russian officials fabricated written “parental consent” forms; the documents were issued by a director appointed from Russia who collaborated with the occupation authorities. At the camp, children were not allowed to leave the premises. The deputy for security, a former Berkut officer, gathered the teenagers and banned all Ukrainian symbols, declaring that Ukraine “would no longer exist” and that they would be kept there for a year or more. Each day, the children were required to sing the Russian anthem, raise the flag, and attend “conversations about important things,” where the existence of Ukraine was denied.

After the New Year, Serhii was forcibly transferred to the Kerch Maritime Technical College. There, he was subjected to constant pressure and urged to obtain a Russian passport, which he refused. Russian authorities had removed the original copies of his documents from Kherson and never returned them.

For four months, his mother had no contact with him. When mobile service was finally restored, she learned that her son was working part-time after classes to support himself and was pleading to be brought home. At the border during their departure, Russian security officers interrogated them and pressured them to remain in Russia.

Systematic erasure of identity

Stolen Ukrainian children are subjected to:

systematic indoctrination aimed at erasing their national identity, language, and culture;
militarization and training to fight against their own country;
forced adoption into Russian families;
human trafficking with the aim of sexual abuse, forced labour or conscription into the Russian army;
religious persecution and psychological manipulation.

All for the sake of a single objective: to turn Ukrainian children into Russian soldiers.

Militarization: children as weapons

Militarization: children as weapons

Russia’s military-patriotic education system now encompasses more than 13.25 million children. In recent years, state funding for these programs has increased nearly fourfold.

Propaganda in schools → youth movements → military-patriotic camps → forced conscription.

This is a structured institutional model.

Following deportation or under occupation, children are integrated into the Russian state education system. Curricula portray the war against Ukraine as a “defense against NATO,” deny Ukrainian statehood, and cultivate hostility toward democratic countries. Schools employ mechanisms of monitoring, psychological pressure, and “preventive work” targeting teenagers who express pro-Ukrainian views.

Indoctrination becomes the first stage.

The next step is the militarization of Ukrainian children to expand Russia’s military resource base through occupied territories. Already today, some POWs who fought against Ukraine originate from temporarily occupied regions.

We hear only individual voices. But the reality concerns entire generation shaped under conditions of systematic isolation and militarization.

These materials demonstrate how the system functions. If it does not receive adequate attention and response, it continues to scale. Children become weapons.

Hear stolen children’s voices

Maryna (17)

Mariupol

At the beginning of the siege of Mariupol, Maryna lived on the Left Bank, not far from Azovstal. The area was almost completely destroyed. Aircraft dropped bombs every day.

Oleh (14)

Kherson region

When the occupiers entered his native village in the Kherson region, Oleh was only 14. Russian authorities quickly turned his school into a center of propaganda and militarization.

Yaroslav (16)

Kherson region

The occupiers effectively abducted 16-year-old Yaroslav when they sent him to a military camp in Volgograd against his mother’s will.

Names, faces, and personal details of the children and families have been changed or withheld for security reasons. In many cases, their relatives remain in temporarily occupied territories.