US Senators Call for Return of Kidnapped Ukrainian Children Before Any Deal

WASHINGTON DC – A bipartisan group of leading US Senators on Tuesday introduced a resolution calling for the return of all abducted Ukrainian children before any peace agreement is finalized, ending Russia’s war against Ukraine.

The issue has been at the center of an international war crimes arrest warrant against key Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin.

The resolution is led by Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and it already has five bipartisan co-sponsors: Joni Ernst (R-IA), Dick Durbin (D-IL.), Roger Wicker (R-MS.), John Fetterman (D-PN.) and Rick Scott (R-FL).

The authors remind that as of April 16, 2025, Ukrainian authorities have received at least 19,546 confirmed reports of unlawful deportations and forced transfers of Ukrainian children to the territory of Russia, Belarus, or Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory.

They go on to condemn the forcible transfer of Ukrainian children, noting that Putin’s invasion has increasingly exposed children to human trafficking and exploitation, child labor, sexual violence, hunger, injury, trauma, and death.

Putin “has kidnapped thousands of children to brainwash and Russify them in an attempt to destroy their cultural identity and heritage.” Sen. Grassley said in a statement. “The United States ought to demand [that] these children [be] returned before inking a deal to end the war in Ukraine,” he added.

Other Topics of Interest

EU Extends Russia Sanctions for First Full-Year Term

The move marks the first time the bloc has renewed its sectoral sanctions against Russia for a full year instead of the usual six-month period.

“The mass kidnapping of Ukrainian children by Russia is an atrocity. We cannot accept a world where children are abducted during wartime and used as a form of hostage-taking for negotiations. These children must be returned unconditionally before any peace deal is finalized,” added Sen. Klobuchar.

Organizations endorsing the resolution include: World Relief, Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (Southern Baptist Convention), Christian Life Commission & Center for Cultural Engagement (Texas Baptists), Peace & Power Ukraine Host Gary Marx, and Razom for Ukraine, a leading U.S. nonprofit dedicated to supporting Ukraine.

“This is an important step in President Donald Trump’s March 19 promise to ensure Ukrainian children abducted by Russia are returned to their families,” Razom said in a statement.

Trump, during a call with President Volodymyr Zelensky on March 19, pledged to work closely with “both parties” to help make sure those children were returned home, despite the halting of US funding for an investigation into identifying them.

The investigations were carried out by the Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL).

In its report presented to the UN Security Council last December, the HRL said it identified 314 Ukrainian children placed in a “systematic, Kremlin-directed program of coerced adoption and fostering.”

Speaking to Kyiv Post on Tuesday, May 20, Yale HRL’s Executive Director Nathaniel Raymond hailed the Senators’ initiative.

“The resolution introduced today by Senators Grassley and Klobuchar is an essential step towards both ensuring that Ukraine’s abducted children return home from Russia as soon as possible and that Vladimir Putin is not allowed to hold children from another country in violation of the Geneva Conventions,” he said.

Mykola Kuleba, CEO & Founder of Save Ukraine, and former Ukraine’s Ombudsman for Children says that Ukraine’s stolen children “are counting on moral leadership from the United States.”

“Since 2022, Russia has illegally taken Ukrainian children from their homes and subjected them to human trafficking, identity erasure, and militarization—grave violations of human rights and international law,” Kuleba said in a comment shared by Razom.

“As a non-profit leader working to rescue and reunite these children with their families, I’m grateful for every voice raised on their behalf. We deeply appreciate leaders who are urging action to ensure that these children are safely returned with urgency” Kuleba noted.

The Senate resolution follows an April letter sent by forty religious leaders to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling for the return of the nearly 20,000 children forcibly transferred to Russia and Russian-controlled territories.