US launches $25M effort to free abducted Ukrainian children
The U.S. government has launched a $25 million effort to help identify, return and rehabilitate Ukrainian children and youth abducted by Russian forces and taken to Russian-controlled territories or otherwise held away from their families and communities.
The money, provided in coordination with Congress, is part of new assistance programming tied to President Donald Trump’s push for “durable peace and prosperity” in Ukraine, the U.S. Department of State said in a March 26 statement.
The funding will support two sets of programs. One will help reliable partners identify and track children who were forcibly transferred away from their homes, a step the department said is needed for diplomatic and other work aimed at bringing them back. The other will support the Ukrainian government and trusted local partners as they care for children who return, with services intended to help them recover and rebuild their lives.
The State Department said dozens of U.S.-funded assistance programs continue to provide life-saving assistance to civilians affected by the violence in Ukraine, including these children.
The Christian humanitarian organization World Relief welcomed the initiative.
Hannah Daniel, the group’s director of government relations, said the organization estimates that 35,000 children have been forcibly taken from their homes and families, and said the U.S. government's actions are an important step toward reunifying them with their relatives.
She said the group had long urged President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump to make the children’s return a priority.
“In times of war and conflict, children too often pay the highest price. … We will continue to pray and advocate until each of these children is returned safely home,” she said.
In February, the White House announced that the first lady “has helped facilitate the return of children to their families after they were separated because of the regional conflict.”
Melania Trump stated, “I appreciate that Russia and Ukraine are dedicated to bringing back the children who have been displaced because of the circumstances surrounding this conflict. Although all parties are cooperating and our communications remain robust, I urge Russia and Ukraine to intensify their efforts to ensure the safe return of every child to their families and guardians.”
She added, “Today marks the third reunification since I have been working strategically with both nations. I have no doubt more progress will come.”
Some children had been forcibly adopted into Russia and others were being held in 43 camps across Russia and Russian-occupied territory, with most of those camps focused on re-education, military training, or both, wrote Steven Moore, a former chief of staff in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Colby Barrett, a former U.S. Marine Corps Captain, in an earlier op-ed for The Christian Post.
Moore and Barrett said they met Rostyslav, identified as a Ukrainian orphan who escaped from a Russian military camp where he was kept in solitary confinement, while filming a documentary on Ukraine, “A Faith Under Siege: Russia’s Hidden War on Ukraine’s Christians.” "We’ve met these survivors and victims in person," they wrote.
“We also met Nadiia, a mother who had a gun held to her head in front of her children while members of the Russian Guard tortured her husband in the next room,” they claimed. “With a tip-off from her pastor, the family escaped from Russian-occupied Ukraine just days before her oldest child was set to be taken from them and sent to one of these Russian-controlled indoctrination facilities.”
In the April 2025 op-ed, they cited a larger toll on children in the war, saying Russia’s full-scale invasion had killed 669 children and injured 1,854, with an average of 16 child casualties being added each week at that stage.
Referring to the State Department’s Trafficking in Persons report, they noted that Ukrainian boys had been used for conscription and forced labor, including criminal courier work in drug trafficking, while girls faced forced labor, forced conscription and sexual exploitation in Russian-occupied areas.
