The United States, along with 90 other countries at the United Nations, demanded on Dec. 3 that Russia ensure “the immediate, safe and unconditional return of all Ukrainian children who have been forcibly transferred or deported” and called on Moscow to cease the alleged practice.
The resolution was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly a day after U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin for talks to end the war in Ukraine.
Moscow had called on countries to oppose the resolution, which was drafted by Ukraine, Canada, and the European Union, saying it was detrimental to achieving peace.
“Each vote for the resolution is support for lies, war and confrontation. Every vote against is a vote for peace,” Russian Deputy U.N. Ambassador Maria Zabolotskaya told the General Assembly ahead of the vote.
A total of 12 countries, including Russia, Belarus, and Iran, voted against the resolution, while 57 nations, including China, India, and Saudi Arabia, abstained.
Resolutions by the General Assembly are not binding but reflect the views of states around the globe.
Kyiv says Moscow has abducted tens of thousands of children and taken them to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the consent of their families or guardians.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, The Netherlands, issued arrest warrants in 2023 for Putin and his commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of unlawful deportation of children, which is viewed as a war crime.
Speaking to Russian state news agency TASS at the time, the Kremlin described the allegations as “outrageous and unacceptable” and said the warrants are “null and void,” as Russia does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC.
The move by the U.N. came on the same day as a U.S. Senate hearing on the kidnapping allegations.
“People in Ukraine and organizations are claiming that Putin’s Russia has separated over 19,000 Ukrainian children from their families, trying to turn them into Russians,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said. “You cannot honorably end this conflict unless you account for every child taken by Putin’s Russia from Ukraine. Period.”
Nathaniel Raymond, a war crimes investigator serving as the executive director of the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, told the hearing that, according to his 3 1/2-year investigation alongside the U.S. State Department, the actual number of Ukrainian children allegedly kidnapped by Russia is “closer to 35,000.”
Graham, a top Senate Republican, said Congress should review the terms of whatever deal the Trump administration is negotiating with Moscow so the legislative branch has a say in the deal and whether it offers security guarantees to Ukraine, “which there must be.”
Olga Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, said it is “non-negotiable” for the Ukrainian government that “all children who have been abducted are subjected to unconditional return.”
Moscow has denied the abduction allegations, saying it has been protecting vulnerable children from a war zone.
“The references in Western media, prompted by Kiev, to tens or even hundreds of thousands of ‘abducted’ children are deliberately false and are being maliciously circulated in the propaganda war against Russia,” Russia’s ambassador to the United States, Alexander Darchiev, said last month, according to TASS.
The repatriation of Ukrainian children from Russia has also become a focus for U.S. First Lady Melania Trump.
She first sent a letter to Putin in August, when the Russian president visited Alaska, seeking his assistance in returning the children.
“As parents, it is our duty to nurture the next generation’s hope. As leaders, the responsibility to sustain our children extends beyond the comfort of a few,” she wrote in the letter.
“Undeniably, we must strive to paint a dignity-filled world for all—so that every soul may wake to peace, and so that the future itself is perfectly guarded.”
Putin responded personally, and the two developed an open dialogue and communicated regularly over the past months, she said.
In October, she said that eight children had been returned to their families, with more to be reunited soon.
“U.S. First Lady Melania Trump, who appealed to Russian President [Vladimir Putin] with a request to pay close attention to the fate of minors in the conflict zone, expressed gratitude for the Russian side’s readiness to provide objective and detailed information,” Darchiev said at the time.
Because of this interaction, “seven children were promptly reunited with their families in Ukraine and one girl returned to Russia,” he said.
Jacob Burg contributed to this report.
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