Bringing Ukrainian children back home

Sasha, a young Ukrainian boy, was only 11 years old when the Russians attacked.

He and his mother sought refuge in a basement in their town of Mariupol, in southeastern Ukraine.

Russian soldiers stormed the city and took Sasha away from his mother. He was told he would have a Russian mother, a Russian passport and a Russian name. They sent him to occupied Donetsk. But Sasha didn’t give up, according to an article on the European Commission website titled “Bringing Ukrainian children back home.”

On a stop on the way, so goes the story, Sasha asked to borrow a stranger’s phone. He called his grandmother, Liudmyla, who was living in free Ukraine.

Liudmyla moved mountains to get to him. With the help of the Ukrainian government, she traveled to Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia and finally into occupied Ukraine. She got Sasha back, according to the article.

Sasha is just one of tens of thousands of Ukrainian children caught in Russia’s war against the Eastern European country.

There are many more Ukrainian children who remain under Russian control and Ukraine, the EU and the international community are working together to bring them home.

No less than the European Commission has reported that since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, more than 20,500 Ukrainian children have been unlawfully deported and forcibly transferred to Russia and the temporarily occupied territories.

“Many have been forced to change their identity, placed for adoption and given the aggressor’s citizenship,” it said.

We have been watching from faraway, here in our corner of the world, and it seems that there’s still no end in sight in this senseless and ugly war.

I sat down last week with Ukraine Ambassador Yuliia Fediv and we talked about a wide array of issues from war to trade.

One pressing issue she put the spotlight on is the importance of bringing Ukraine’s children home.

“We do not want to end up under Russian occupation because we have 20 percent of our territory already occupied by Russia. And we have tons of evidence about the erasure of Ukrainian culture, the creation of concentration camps and re-education camps for our children. Many of our children are abducted and adopted by Russians and re-educated,” she said.

As such, she said the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children was created.

Officially launched in Kiev in 2024, the coalition coordinates “joint efforts and cooperation between Ukraine and partner states to address the issue of the unlawful deportation and forced transfer of Ukrainian children by the Russian Federation,” according to an article on the coalition posted on Global Affairs Canada.

The government of Canada co-chairs the coalition alongside the government of Ukraine.

Reunification of families

In all, the coalition aims to bring Ukrainian children home to their families and communities.

This will be done in compliance with international law, by keeping the best interests of the child at the core of the coalition’s actions.

In support of these efforts, Canada and Ukraine are working together to address challenges related to the unlawful deportation and forced transfer of children.

Initiatives include:

Information sharing. This aims to ensure timely, accurate and ethical sharing of information, supporting the creation of robust statistics and coordinating the ethical sharing of relevant case details between Ukrainian authorities and partners, and to response mechanisms supporting the unlawful deportation and forced transfer of Ukrainian children.

Capacities alignment: This is to synchronize the diverse capacities, expertise and financial resources of Ukraine and partners to support the coalition’s work.

Advocacy and communication: This is meant to advance efforts to secure the release of children through awareness raising meetings and in international forums via high-level diplomatic engagements.

These efforts will continue until all the children are brought home, says Ambassador Fediv.

“Now more than 51 countries have joined this coalition. The main aim is to return the children which were abducted by Russia back to Ukraine,” she said.

As a mother, I cannot imagine the horror of this, but I also know this is even more traumatizing for the children – their childhood is stolen and a cycle of conflict could be passed on from one generation to another.

Against this backdrop, Ambassador Fediv said Ukrainians strive to go on with life despite the war.

The people move in between the sirens, she said. The children need to go to school so the Ukrainians try to adapt.

“Yeah, we adapt, we build shelters in schools, in the universities, in the offices,” said Ambassador Fediv.

Sitting across her during our interview, I found myself sometimes at a loss for words as I ponder on how difficult it must be to be a citizen of a country that is fighting an invasion.

Yet, she keeps her hopes alive for peace.

Ambassador Fediv, I learned, grew up in a family of doctors and, for a time, thought she would follow the same path. But in eighth grade, she was introduced to another profession: diplomacy, and this became her own way of serving her country.

Today, she sees her role not only as representing Ukraine but also working for peace.

“Diplomacy is also about making friends and making peace,” she said. “That’s why, as a diplomat, I want to do everything possible to bring peace to my country and also to build the broader networks and to find friends around the world.”

*      *      *

Email: [email protected]. Follow her on X 
@eyesgonzales. Column archives at EyesWideOpen on FB.