26 ottobre 2026
The Law Society Gazette: "Keeping Ukraine’s children front of mind"
President Trump’s attempts to minimise Russia’s war crimes mean we must keep the focus on Putin’s war on Ukraine’s children.
On 16 February 2022, my daughter was among students at the Cambridge Union Society who were treated to the foreign policy insights of Sir Simon McDonald, former head of the UK’s Diplomatic Service. One issue was front of mind: was Russia about to launch an all-out invasion of Ukraine? McDonald said: ‘I think Mr Putin is achieving enough of his objectives with his choices to not feel the need to invade the east of Ukraine further than he has.’
Two days later that assessment was shattered by Russia’s full scale invasion.
You knew that children would be among the civilian casualties. Russia’s army is one of the world’s less careful land forces.
What was not expected was the unconscionable degree to which children would become targets.
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, it is estimated that 35,000 Ukrainian children have been taken for forced indoctrination and adoption, fuelled by the Russian hierarchy’s twisted preoccupation with its own falling birth rates and a desire to enact cultural erasure.