Kremlin Says 700,000 Children From Ukraine Now in Russia

Russia has relocated approximately 700,000 children from areas in Ukraine into Russian territory, Grigory Karasin, head of the Committee of the Federation Council on Foreign Affairs of Russia, said on July 2.

In recent years, 700,000 children have found refuge with us, fleeing the bombing and shelling from the conflict areas in Ukraine.
—Grigory Karasin

Last February, Russia expanded its violence against Ukraine into a full-scale war. Russian officials claim the relocation of Ukrainian children since then is designed to safeguard orphans and others from the violence. Ukrainian and Western officials say the act constitutes genocide as defined by Article ii, Clause “e” of the Geneva Conventions. It also constitutes a war crime as defined by the International Criminal Court (icc).

In March, the icc issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin for his role in abducting Ukrainian children and relocating them to Russia. The icc maintains an extremely high threshold for proving war crimes, but Putin made prosecutors’ work easy by boasting on his official website about abducting Ukrainian children. The statement this week from Karasin exposes the alarming scope of the crime and further solidifies the icc’s case.

Demographic woes: Russia is suffering rapid and alarming population decline. Over the past six decades, its citizens have failed to produce enough offspring to sustain their numbers. On average, only 1.5 children are born per woman, significantly below the 2.1 replacement rate.

This demographic crisis is exacerbated by increasing emigration and soaring rates of excess deaths. It paints a bleak picture of Russia’s future. Even Putin acknowledges this pressing issue, stating in 2021 that “146 million for such a vast territory is insufficient.” In the time since, the population has further shrunk to 143.4 million.

By stealing Ukraine’s children, Putin hopes to mitigate this demographic crisis. Some analysts argue this was part of his motivation for the full-scale war from the start. “This land grab in Ukraine was always also a people grab,” commentator Jake Broe said. “The goal was always to steal the children of Ukraine, Russify them, make them loyal to Putin and the Russian empire.”