Zelensky says Russia is drafting Ukrainian children taken from Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at the Ibero-American Summit in Madrid that Russia had begun drafting Ukrainian children taken from the country during the war who had since come of age. He did not cite specific cases; Moscow has previously rejected accusations of abducting Ukrainian children.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had begun sending Ukrainian children taken from Ukraine during the war into its army. He made the remarks on Thursday, November 5, while speaking at a special panel on Ukraine held as part of the XXX Ibero-American Summit in Madrid, Interfax-Ukraine reported.

“Tens of thousands of Ukrainian children were abducted from our land. And now we are seeing something even worse. Russia has already begun sending some of these children, whom it abducted from us and who grew up during this war, into the Russian army. This is terrible, and it must stop,” Zelensky said.

In the footage, Zelensky reads his speech while seated at the panel table. He did not specify how many children, according to Kyiv, had joined the Russian army, nor did he cite specific cases. Instead, the Ukrainian president urged partners to raise the issue publicly: “Continue to raise this issue. Make sure the world learns about these crimes. Our team and our diplomats are ready to provide you with all the necessary information.”

Kyiv’s figures

Later that day, after meeting in Madrid with Andorra’s head of government, Xavier Espot, Zelensky wrote on X that 2,790 children had been returned to Ukraine out of more than 20,000 whom Russia had taken, according to Kyiv. “Every time, it is a challenge: to find, verify, prove and return them. And every time, Russia obstructs this process,” he said. In April, the Ukrainian side said that just over 2,100 children had been returned under the Bring Kids Back UA programme.

Zelensky had made similar accusations before. In a June interview with CBS News, he claimed that Kyiv had evidence that the children taken away were being prepared to participate in combat operations, but he did not publicly present the evidence. During a visit to Austria at the same time, he also said that Moscow had offered to exchange the children for Russian prisoners of war, and that Kyiv had rejected the proposal.

International Criminal Court building in The Hague

ICC warrants and UN commission report

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights, in connection with the alleged unlawful deportation of children from Ukrainian territories. Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute and does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction, while the Kremlin described the court’s decisions at the time as legally void.

In March 2026, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said it had examined cases involving 1,205 children from five Ukrainian regions, about 80% of whom had still not returned home. The commission classified their deportation and transfer as crimes against humanity.

Moscow’s position

Moscow rejects accusations of abducting children. “There are no Ukrainian children abducted by Russia, as they call it,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in June 2025. She said many of these children had no documents or had fallen victim to falsification. Russia maintains that the children’s transfer was humanitarian in nature and that their reunification with relatives is being handled through Lvova-Belova’s office, including with Qatar’s mediation. In 2025, during talks in Istanbul, presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky said the Ukrainian delegation had handed over a list of 339 children, which was sent to the children’s ombudsperson.

The issue of the children is also discussed in contacts with Washington: according to the White House, 34 children had previously been reunited with their families in Russia and Ukraine through the mediation of U.S. first lady Melania Trump. Moscow had not responded to Zelensky’s latest statement by the time of publication.

Video: social media. Photo: Stenbocki maja / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0), OSeveno / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Zelensky says Russia is drafting Ukrainian children taken from Ukraine