Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russians have killed 744 children in Ukraine, and another 2,363 children are missing. More than 2,900 children have also been injured.
Ukraine’s Parliamentary Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, stressed this during an interactive dialogue with the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine as part of the 63rd regular session of the UN Human Rights Council.
"744 children have been killed as a result of the full-scale invasion, and 2,363 children are considered missing. In the temporarily occupied territories, Ukrainian children are being prepared to fight against Ukraine. A further 2,904 children have suffered injuries of varying severity, and 23 cases of conflict-related sexual violence against children have been documented. These are not just numbers. Behind them lies the fate of every child!" the ombudsman emphasised.
He said that around 1.6 million Ukrainian children may still be in Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories.
Children in the occupied territories are subjected to Russification and propaganda; they are issued Russian documents, placed with Russian families, and stripped of their Ukrainian identity. Children are also being unlawfully transferred from the temporarily occupied territories.
"Instead of wellbeing, the right to a peaceful life and prosperity, the Russian Federation is forcibly militarising childhood. While still minors, they are forced to undergo military training, and thousands of young Ukrainians are conscripted into the Russian army. The Russian leadership has one goal: to continue the war against Ukraine using other people’s hands. To prepare a new generation of soldiers," Lubinets added.
Dmytro Lubinets urged the international community to join the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children, help establish the whereabouts of every child, and ensure their safe return to Ukraine.
The ombudsman also called for Russia to be pressed to provide a complete list of unlawfully deported and transferred Ukrainian children, and for international monitoring missions to be granted access to Ukraine’s temporarily occupied territories.
- Since the beginning of 2026, it has been possible to return 190 Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied part of Kherson Region.