“The peace agreement should provide for the return of all Ukrainian children” – Daria Kasyanova
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The main demand of Ukraine before a possible ceasefire is to return home every child who was taken to Russia against his or her will or left in the occupied territories. This was stated by Daria Kasyanova, Chairman of the Board of the Ukrainian Child Rights Network (UCRN) and Program Director of SOS Children’s Villages Ukraine, in an interview with the Finnish newspaper Karjalainen .
“This is not our wish, but our demand that all Ukrainian children can return to Ukraine – or if not to the territory of Ukraine, then to a safe third country, where it will be possible to properly determine what the children themselves really want,” Kasyanova emphasized.
How many children were taken away
According to official government data, nearly 20,000 children have been deported to Russia. Daria Kasyanova is sure that this figure is significantly underestimated: “I am sure that the real figure is much higher. In particular, teenagers who have returned to Ukraine always talk about their friends who would like to return.”
The so-called Russian children’s ombudsman, Maria Lvova-Belova, stated back in the summer of 2023 that more than 700,000 Ukrainian children had “arrived” in Russia.
Constant risk of theft
About 1.6 million Ukrainian children still live in the territories controlled by Russia. According to Kasyanova, every child is at risk of another forced displacement.
- Only about 1,200 children have been returned so far.
- Returning children from Russia is becoming more and more difficult, and in recent months it has become almost impossible.
- It is even more difficult to bring a child back from the occupied territories than from Russia itself, because it is a war zone.
What do children want?
Kasyanova emphasizes that the most important thing is to find out the child’s true will, because Russian propaganda uses intense indoctrination and issues Russian passports to Ukrainian children.
“I talked to the children who were returned, and some of them said they were sure that Ukraine no longer existed at all,” says Daria.
Therefore, she proposes to create a center in a safe third country where independent specialists can work with children and make decisions in their best interests.
Dramatic stories of families
When parents sent their children “to the village to their grandmother” for safety at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, it often ended up with the child being under the control of the occupation authorities. Upon returning, children often blame their parents for “abandoning” them, and parents feel guilty.
“There is a very difficult process of reconciliation ahead,” says Daria.
In some cases, children who lived in orphanages and have no close relatives decide to stay in Russia after reaching the age of majority. Organizations respect this decision if it is made without coercion.
Why it is important for peace
Daria Kasyanova is convinced that the return of children should be a mandatory point of any peace agreement. Without this, the agreement will not be fair or lasting, as thousands of children will remain at risk of abduction, forced Russification, and an unknown future.