Killed, Missing and Deported: Lubinets Releases Shocking Data on Russia's Crimes Against Ukrainian Children

Russia has deported more than 20,000 children, while another 1.6 million minors and underage children are at risk of unlawful transfer, and thousands of young Ukrainians have suffered as a result of aggression by the Russian armed forces. However, the actual scale of the crimes may be significantly greater, since Ukraine has no access to the temporarily occupied territories to verify the information. The Ombudsman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Dmytro Lubinets, announced these figures on November 10 during the presentation of the third special report dedicated to violations of the rights of Ukrainian children by the aggressor country, UNN reports.

More than one million children remain at risk of deportation

According to the ombudsman, Russia has been pursuing a targeted state policy toward Ukrainian children since 2014. After the occupation of Crimea, the Russian authorities began using mechanisms of deportation, forced transfer, militarization, and ideological influence on minors. Lubinets emphasized that violations of the rights of Ukrainian children are systematic in nature and are not limited to the period of the full-scale invasion.

We always emphasize separately that the Russian Federation has been abducting Ukrainian children since 2014. As soon as the Russian army occupied Ukrainian Crimea, the state system of the Russian Federation, aimed at deporting, militarizing, and indoctrinating Ukrainian children, was immediately launched

The ombudsman also pointed out that thousands of children have already been deported, while a significant number of young Ukrainians are only facing the threat of unlawful transfer.

Approximately 1.6 million Ukrainian children have remained at risk of deportation and forced transfer since 2022. I am focusing on this figure for a reason: so that the whole world understands the scale of the potential tragedy of the Ukrainian nation

At the same time, according to him, it is extremely difficult to establish the exact number of children whom the Russian authorities have actually taken from the occupied territories. The main problem lies in the inability to independently verify information about children who are located in the territory of the Russian Federation or in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

Russia itself reported that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian children had been taken away

The ombudsman noted that the large-scale transfer of Ukrainian minors is evidenced, in particular, by data previously released by the Russian side itself. According to him, in 2022, several Russian sources reported that more than 744,000 Ukrainian children had been taken from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.

In addition, the report for 2025 mentioned by Lubinets gives a figure of 733,000 children transferred from Ukraine to the Russian Federation. At the same time, the ombudsman stressed that this information must be distinguished from cases officially verified by Ukraine.

More than 20,000 cases of deportation confirmed: Lubinets announced crime statistics

During the presentation of the special report, the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada published verified data on children who had suffered as a result of Russian aggression.

According to the figures he presented, as of the time of the speech:

• 770 Ukrainian children were killed as a result of the actions of the Russian army;
• 3,018 children were injured;
• 2,349 children are considered missing;
• 23 children suffered sexual violence;
• 20,651 children are included in verified cases of deportation or forced transfer.

Lubinets separately emphasized that the figures cited do not reflect the full picture of the crimes, since Ukrainian authorities are unable to verify all cases in the temporarily occupied territories.

I would like to draw your attention to the fact that these figures have been verified in territory controlled by the Ukrainian government. In reality, the figures for children who were killed, injured, or went missing in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine cannot be verified by the Ukrainian authorities because we do not have actual access to this territory

According to the ombudsman, the lack of access to the occupied territories remains one of the main obstacles to establishing the actual number of affected children.

And we understand that the figures are much, much higher

Ukraine presents its third special report on crimes against children: what it says

During his speech, Lubinets also presented the special report "Resilient!", dedicated to the systematic inhumane treatment of Ukrainian children by the Russian Federation. The document contains an analysis of the Russian Federation’s state policy toward minors and demonstrates the systematic nature of violations of their rights.

The ombudsman noted that this is already the third special report by the institution of the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights dedicated to the situation of Ukrainian children in the temporarily occupied territories and in the Russian Federation.

In this document, we analyzed and demonstrated the systematic nature of the Russian Federation’s state policy toward Ukrainian children

According to the ombudsman, this work involves searching for and documenting the truth about crimes against Ukrainian children, as well as developing specific proposals for joint action by national authorities and international partners. Representatives of civil society and international organizations, including the Regional Center for Human Rights, the Almenda Center for Civic Education, the ZMINA Human Rights Center, the East SOS Charitable Foundation, Global Rights Compliance, and other partners, contributed to preparing the materials for this year’s report.

From deportation to militarization: how violations of children’s rights are documented

Lubinets recalled that the ombudsman’s institution presented its first special report on the situation of Ukrainian children in 2023. The document was titled "Unblossomed" and focused on violations of children’s rights in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine and in the Russian Federation. At the time, the main focus was on the deportation, forcible transfer, militarization, and indoctrination of Ukrainian children.

The current report continues this work, focusing on the systematic nature of Russia’s state policy toward Ukrainian minors. The ombudsman emphasized that the problem goes far beyond individual cases of violations of children’s rights. According to him, these are deliberate actions by the aggressor state that have continued for more than ten years.

In conclusion, Lubinets recalled the principle enshrined in the 1924 Geneva Declaration of the Rights of the Child, according to which humanity must give the child the best it has. Instead, since 2014, Ukrainian children have faced the opposite reality: rather than having their rights protected, they have been subjected to violence and other crimes by the Russian Federation.

Let us recall

In June 2026, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported the deaths of at least 707 children due to Russia’s aggression. He emphasized the need to punish those responsible for these crimes.