Zelenskyy says Russia is kidnapping Ukrainian children and training them to fight
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CBS News in an exclusive interview that his government has evidence that Russia is abducting Ukrainian children and training them to fight against other Ukrainians.
It is a possible war crime, according to the International Criminal Court. This is the first time that Zelenskyy has made this accusation publicly, which goes beyond documented evidence that Russia has a government-sponsored program to send Ukrainian children to re-education camps or “Russianization.”
“When these children grow up, they push these boys to the battlefield,” said Zelenskyy.
Zelenskyy said “yes, he has evidence,” but did not specify what evidence his government has.
“Yes, and teach these children to hate their country, to hate indigenous people,” said Zelenskyy. “And Ukrainians, you can imagine, little Ukrainian boys, little boys, come to the battlefield and kill Ukrainians.”
The International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin in 2023 for what it called a program of “illegal deportation of people (children).” The Kremlin has called it a humanitarian effort to care for war orphans, and has released pictures of Putin and indicted ICC program manager Maria Lvova-Belova hugging some of the children.
In an exclusive interview with Margaret Brennan aired Sunday on the program “Face the Nation,” Zelenskyy emphasized that Russia has long treated children as members of the military, and offered to trade children for soldiers captured on the battlefield. International humanitarian law provides extensive protection for children as non-combatants.
“It is important that we bring back our heroes, prisoners of war, but we cannot replace them [for] children,” he said.
“Can you imagine, how can we change our children?” he said. “We can’t. First of all, it’s illegal. We can’t exchange citizens.”
The US government-funded Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health, which investigates war crimes, concluded with high confidence in a March report that Gazprom and Rosneft, Russia’s state-owned oil and gas companies, helped underwrite the re-education of more than 2,000 Ukrainian children.
The report also pointed out that the Trump administration’s decision to temporarily impose sanctions on Russian offshore oil provided a boost to both companies.
“Gazprom and Rosneft are the first known companies linked to the Russian Federation related to the deportation of children currently making money at the expense of US consumers at the time of this publication,” the Yale report said.
The US began issuing sanctions in March in an effort to put pressure on the market to reduce rising prices due to the war with Iran. The waiver has been extended twice and, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the extension came at the request of oil-hungry Asian countries.
Brennan asked Zelenskyy if the temporary lifting of US sanctions on Russian oil exports is fueling that kidnapping program.
“The lifting of sanctions is beneficial for the Russian military,” he said.
He said his government had discussed with lawmakers about imposing tougher sanctions on Russia in retaliation for alleged child abductions.
“I hope that Congress will get another chance to impose sanctions on the Russian people, for the sake of the children,” he said. “We talked to the congress, we talked about it many times. I hope they will take this step.”
Zelenskyy also told CBS that Ukraine has documented the abduction of at least 20,000 Ukrainian children, and he is seeking help tracking what he suspects are even higher numbers.
