US to allocate $12 million for reintegration of returned Ukrainian children

25.09.2026, 14:46 rubryka.com

According to the ministry, Ukraine has brought back 2,644 children as of today.

At the same time, authorities submitted a separate 15 million US dollar program proposal focused on locating, identifying, and returning Ukrainian children from Russia or Ukraine's temporarily occupied territories.

Officials expect a funding decision on that proposal by the end of 2026.

The President of Ukraine's Bring Kids Back UA initiative provided separate data regarding the deportation and forced transfer of Ukrainian children. As of September 25, official records confirm:

Relying on the presented legal analysis, co-sponsors advocated qualifying state indoctrination as persecution on national grounds — one of the acts constituting crimes against humanity. Such a mechanism would define Russia's actions not merely as an illegal cross-border transfer, but as an intentional state system aimed at the permanent erasure of Ukrainian identity and forced assimilation of children.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Mariana Betsa noted:

The 1.6 million Ukrainian children currently living under Russian control pass through the entire Russian conveyor belt of militarization and indoctrination: forced imposition of Russian citizenship, followed by school indoctrination, military camps, military academies, and conscription into the Russian army at age 18.

These findings carry particular importance because they offer an independent international legal assessment confirming that Russia's actions regarding Ukrainian children are systematic and may entail liability for crimes against humanity."

Bring Kids Back UA head Maksym Maksymov added:

"This trajectory reflects the Russian plan: isolate, reprogram, and force them to fight against their own country. Every step reinforces the previous one. The circle closes. A child taught to forget Ukraine stands ready to fight it. That is why deportations do not tell the whole story. Deportation, forced transfer, indoctrination, and militarization form a single system that authorities must investigate as a unified state policy. Investigators must evaluate it by the logic driving it, not just by its most visible part. Otherwise, most affected children will remain invisible, and perpetrators will escape justice."

The issue of returning Ukrainian children also entered US legislative measures. On September 18, the US president signed H.R. 5334, the "Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026." The document formally establishes penalties for involvement in the forced deportation of Ukrainian children.

Sanctions may target more than direct perpetrators. They also cover foreign officials, institutions, intermediaries, and other involved parties who knowingly—directly or indirectly—organized, facilitated, financed, or enabled the forced deportation of Ukrainian children.

Background

In international law, "persecution on national grounds" constitutes a crime against humanity. It refers to situations where a state systematically deprives a group of people of fundamental rights solely because of their nationality. In this context, it provides an international legal framework to prosecute identity erasure, forced re-education, and militarization of Ukrainian youth in temporarily occupied territories on an industrial scale.

As Rubryka previously reported, First Lady of the US, Melania Trump, helped return another Ukrainian child separated from their family by the war.

Reports indicate that, since writing the Peace Letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, she has helped reunite 34 Ukrainian children with their families.

It should be noted that in April this year, US First Lady Melania Trump helped return six Ukrainian children abducted from Ukraine by Russian occupiers.

Also, in late July, it became known that the wife of US President Donald Trump helped reunite another group of children with their families after Russia's war against Ukraine had separated them.

As Rubryka reported, on March 26, it became known that the US had allocated 25 million US dollars for programs to return and rehabilitate Ukrainian children forcibly taken by Russia.