Help find and return home Ukrainian children abducted by Russia

These are the stories of children brought back to Ukraine as part of the President's initiative, Bring Kids Back UA. They were taken from occupied territories, held in Russian camps and institutions, and in many cases, put at risk of being adopted into new families or forced to forget who they are. These are just a few of the thousands of cases. These children are home. But many still aren't.

Watch their stories

Oleksandr
Returned from occupation in 2025
Oleksandr, 19, was 16 when his hometown in the Zaporizhzhia region was occupied, and he joined a youth partisan group that took down Russian flags and spread pro-Ukrainian leaflets. He was arrested in May 2022 and tortured in detention — beaten, electrocuted, and forced to sign fabricated charges — spending nearly two months in captivity.
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Mark
Returned from deportation in 2022
Mark, a 13-year-old boy from occupied Torez, was only 9 when Russian forces detained his mother and falsely accused her of espionage. She spent two years in captivity without trial, threatened that her sons would be taken to orphanages if she didn’t confess.
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Kira
Returned from deportation in 2022
At 11, Kira lost her father in a bombing in Mariupol. Wounded and taken to occupied Donetsk, she called her grandfather, and he crossed war zones to bring her home just before she could be adopted in Russia.
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Artem
Returned from deportation in 2022
Artem was taken from his school and sent to a Russian-run orphanage. After weeks of forced indoctrination and isolation, his mother found him and brought him back.
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Sviatoslav
Returned from deportation in 2023
Taken to Russia by a relative, Sviatoslav was forced into a new identity. His brother, a wounded soldier, fought to bring him home, and now they live together in Kyiv.
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Illia
Returned from deportation in 2023
After losing his mother in a missile strike, Illia was taken by Russian forces. His grandmother saw him on TV, crossed four borders, and brought him back.
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