The crisis of missing Ukrainian children grows as NATO meets at war

The thousands of Ukrainian children kidnapped since the invasion of Russia began three and a half years is again at the forefront of international discussions while NATO leaders have summoned themselves to discuss the war.

After the deadly invasion of Russia 2022, Ukrainian children were among the main victims of the war, kyiv confirming that there were at least 19,546 cases of illegal deportation and forced transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia, Belarus or the territory occupied by Russia, by Russian authorities.

Some reports have suggested that the number of Ukrainian children transported by force could be considerably higher, going closer to 35,000 kidnappings – many of which are feared to have been illegally adopted.

A girl greets while sitting on an evacuation bus on September 17, 2024 in Pokrovsk, Ukraine. (Yan Dobronosov / Global Image Ukraine via Getty Images)

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Fox News Digital could not confirm whether NATO leaders, who summoned themselves on Wednesday for debriefing by American military leaders, will understand how to remedy the immense violations of human rights targeting Ukrainian children while they seek to establish security guarantees, perhaps this week.

But President Donald Trump, who met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, followed by a meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO leaders on Monday, said the question of expelled Ukrainian children “is a subject above all lists.”

The question was revived after the first lady, Melania Trump, sent a letter to Putin, that Trump delivered by hand at her meeting on Friday, in which she said: “It is time” to restore “the dream of love, possibility and security of children”.

“A simple but deep concept, Mr. Putin, as I sure you agree, is that the descendants of each generation begin their lives with purity-an innocence which is above geography, government and ideology,” she wrote.

The first lady did not specifically mention the war in Ukraine, although her letter, obtained for the first time by Fox News Digital, was defended by kyiv.

Denys Zaporozhchenko (L) meets his children Nikita, Yana and Dayana (R) after the bus delivered them and more than a dozen other children from the territory held by Russia arrived in kyiv on March 22, 2023. (Sergei Chuzavkov / AFP via Getty Images)

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Zelenskyy seemed to surprise Trump in turn a letter written by his wife, Olena Zelenska, intended for the First Lady.

The content of the second letter was not disclosed, but Trump noted his wife’s compassion with regard to the question of children – a subject that Zelenska also worked to approach.

“She sees the sorrow, the parents, the funeral you see on television, still the funeral,” said Trump.

Some children have gradually returned to Ukraine thanks to the help of third -party mediators, such as Qatar and Vatican, although the report suggests only some 1,500 were published by the Russian authorities.

Ukrainian negotiators have been pressure for the return of Ukrainian children for months as they meet Russian counterparts in Türkiye.

While the exchanges of prisoners of war have been accepted, Zelenskyy said that Russian officials refused to hand over Ukrainian children directly to kyiv.

The illustration image shows a symbolic action led by Avaz members and Ukrainian refugees with the deposit of thousands of bear and stuffed toys representing the thousands of children kidnapped following the war in Ukraine, at the Schuman roundabout, in Brussels, on February 23, 2023. (Nicolas Maeterlinck / Belga Mag / AFP via Getty Images)

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“We cannot reach an agreement with them on the return of children,” Zelenskyy told journalists last week, adding that despite attempts, it remains “impossible” without the help of the other parties involved.

“This is why we wanted to settle certain questions in this trilateral track: the ceasefire, an exchange everything for everyone and the return of children,” he added. “This is something that everyone is enjoying: President Trump is taking advantage of it, the Russians lose nothing, the Ukrainians have nothing. It is a fair compromise.”