Zelenskyy alleges Russia is abducting Ukrainian kids and training them to fight

CBS News ^ | Updated on: May 31, 2026 / 3:24 PM EDT | Margaret Brennan

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Ukraine's 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 fellow Ukrainians.

It is an allegation that may constitute a war crime, according to the International Criminal Court. This is the first time that Zelenskyy has publicly made this accusation, which goes beyond the documented evidence that Russia has a state-sponsored program of taking Ukrainian children to camps for reeducation or "Russification."

"When these children grow up and they push these boys to the battlefield," Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy said "yes have evidence of it," but he did not detail what the evidence his government has.

"Yes, and they taught these children to hate their native country, to hate native people," Zelenskyy said. "And Ukrainians, can you imagine, such young Ukrainians, young boys, come to the battlefield and kill Ukrainians."

The International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Vladimir Putin's arrest in 2023 due to what it referred to as a program of "unlawful deportation of population (children)." The Kremlin called it a humanitarian effort to care for war orphans, and has broadcast images of Putin and the ICC-indicted program head Maria Lvova-Belova embracing some of the kids.

In an exclusive interview with Margaret Brennan that aired Sunday on "Face the Nation," Zelenskyy emphasized that Russia has long been treating children essentially as combatants, and offering to trade the children for soldiers captured on the battlefield. International humanitarian law provides broad protections for children as non-combatants.

"It's important to get back our warriors, war prisoners, but we can't exchange them [for] the children," he said.

"Can you imagine, how we can exchange our children?" he said. "We can't. First of all, it's out of the law. We can't exchange civilians."

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TOPICS: Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: 2023; childabduction; children; icc; kidnapping; minorityrepublican; proxywar; putinwar; ukraine; warrant; welfarewar; zeeperporn; zestinky

[lee martell]

Like Russia is not doing the exact same thing.

[MotorCityBuck]

https://youtu.be/6vdwiQu-RYA
Military Summary Channel
Facts on the Ground.

Piano Man is Losing badly.

[Jolla]

“... they taught these children to hate their native country”

Are they paying dues to the American Federation of Teachers...thats their gig.

[lee martell]

I misunderstood the headline.
I wish I could delete my post, but it’s not a big deal.
Won’t be the first time I’ve ‘misunderstood’ something here.

[frank ballenger]

Real life champion Tae Kwo Do girls in role in The Man with the Golden Gun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvg-d3nMtCE

There’s a similar moment in the Making of John Wick 4 in which stunt men were warned if you work with Donnie (Donnie Yen) he’s lightning quick, so you have to be ready in the scene. Next footage shows the man bleeding from his head.

[SmokingJoe]

Zelenskyy’s on drugs again?

[SmokingJoe]

Was wondering about your post.
Ah well it happens.

[House Atreides]

A significant portion of the Ukrainian population is either ethnic Russian or speak Russian as their first language. It likely doesn’t take a lot for them to be “Russified”. Just sayin’.

[no2daylightsavings]

“Zelenskyy alleges Russia is abducting Ukrainian kids and training them to fight”

Accuse your enemy of what you are doing

[ANKE69]

Of course, Z-dictator didn't mention the worst forms of child labor or the commercial sexual exploitation that remains a serious problem in Ukraine, or the significant amount of online child pornography that continues to originate in his country.

Prior to the proxy war, children from Ukraine were trafficked both internationally and domestically for commercial sexual exploitation and forced begging. Some state-run orphanages have also used children for illegal labor in business, seasonal agricultural work, construction, and sexual exploitation.

Zelensky and his beard are working closely with the evil Soros spawn to "Bring Kids Back."
It's sickening!!

Look at the evil face of the Soros spawn. He IS the devil.

[Robert DeLong]

Well, the article is about Russia doing this. Did you mena to say that Ukraine is doing the same thing?

[Robert DeLong]

I sahould have kept readin. Forget my previous post. 😁🤙

[T.B. Yoits]

Yeah Zelensky... the Russians took the kids. You didn’t sell them on the pedophile market...

[Steven Tyler]

Human capital.
The piano man is poaching men off the streets and sending them to the front to die

[Seruzawa]

I see you also followed the time tested FR tradition of not reading the article. Well done.

[Seruzawa]

We have the evidence. We are just not going to show it. You will have to trust me.

[OldCountryBoy]

Headlines are often cryptic… My first quick-take was Zelenskyy was doing this. I wouldn’t doubt he is, and then claiming “the Russians did it.”

[tlozo]

Russia's systematic forced transfer, adoption, and cultural assimilation of Ukrainian children since the 2022 full-scale invasion constitute a serious violation of international law that global authorities, international bodies, and legal experts have formally classified as an act of genocide. Under Article II(e) of the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention, the "forcible transferring of children of the group to another group" committed with the intent to destroy a national or ethnic identity meets the definitive criteria for genocide.

The Scope and Legal Status of Child Abductions

Widespread Deportations: Government databases like Ukraine's Children of War have documented nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children who have been forcibly relocated to Russian territories.

International Warrants: In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued historic arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova. The court cited direct responsibility for the war crime of unlawful population deportation.

Official Declarations: Bodies like the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) and the U.S. House of Representatives have formally passed resolutions stating that these state-sponsored abductions amount to genocide.

The "Russification" and Ethnocide Mechanism

Independent international probes, including reports from the United Nations Human Rights Council, emphasize that the removals are not temporary evacuations. Instead, they are part of a deliberate program targeting the elimination of Ukrainian identity:

Erasure of Identity: Once in Russian custody, children are subjected to "filtration" protocols. Their names, birth dates, and documentation are altered to sever ties with their homeland.

Forced Nationality & Adoptions: A May 2022 decree signed by Vladimir Putin expedited Russian citizenship for Ukrainian minors, clearing the path for permanent adoption by Russian families.

Systemic Indoctrination: Children are placed into an extensive network of specialized camps stretching across Russia and occupied Crimea. In these institutions, they face mandatory militarized education, pro-Kremlin political propaganda, and strict prohibitions against speaking the Ukrainian language.

[tlozo]

We have the evidence. We are just not going to show it. You will have to trust me.

Researchers at the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) track an estimated 35,000 Ukrainian children forcibly abducted and deported by Russian forces. Their project maps Russia's sprawling network of coerced adoption systems, re-education camps, and military training sites designed to erase the children's Ukrainian cultural identities.

Ukraine's Stolen Children: Inside Russia's Network of Re-education and Militarization

The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) has concluded that children from Ukraine have been taken to at least 210 facilities inside Russia and temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. This report is the fourth in a series by the Yale School of Public Health Humanitarian Research Lab (Yale HRL) examining Russia’s transfer, re-education, and militarization of children from Ukraine since 2022.

Children from Ukraine were subjected to re-education at more than half (62.9%) of the facilities and underwent militarization in at least 18% of facilities identified by HRL. More than half of the facilities which children from Ukraine were taken are managed by the Russian government.

HRL can conclude that Russia is operating a potentially unprecedented system of large-scale re-education, military training, and dormitory facilities capable of holding tens of thousands of children from Ukraine for long periods of time. While this study does not answer the question of how many children from Ukraine are currently in Russia’s custody, it does reveal the logistical and operational capacity committed to Russifying children taken from their home communities in Ukraine. This is the first detailed effort to study the number, types, and roles of locations utilized by Russia’s federal government, particularly regarding re-education and militarization, in efforts to Russify Ukraine’s children.

https://medicine.yale.edu/lab/khoshnood/news-article/ukraines-stolen-children-inside-russias-network-of-re-education-and-militarization/