According to the calculations of the OSCE, since 2015 there are probably several hundreds of thousands of children who have been kidnapped from Ukraine and sent to Russia.
Since 2015, several hundreds of thousands of minors have likely been taken from occupied areas in Ukraine and sent to Russia. This statement came from three experts engaged by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, OSCE. "It seems that there is a plan for the children to be assimilated in a broad way", said the OSCE expert, Veronika Bilkova before the media.
The team of experts also stated that there were "a series of (..) violations against the rights (..) of deported children." Their exact number is unknown, the lowest estimates affect around 20,000 people. But like Russian sources, Ukrainian ones give figures that are ten times higher or more. "We are really talking about a massive phenomenon", said Bilkova.
According to the report, Russia has taken "legal and political measures (...) to give some of these children Russian citizenship and facilitate their sending to foster families." These children in Russia are exposed to a pro-Russian campaign. Since Russia's march into Ukraine last year, 2022, more than 19,000 children have been abducted in Russia, many of them in orphanages and foster families, according to Kiev data. Russia denies this and meanwhile declares that it has tried to protect these children from the horrors of war./DW