Due to the occupation, Ukraine has lost half of its child population – Mykola Kuleba
Since 2014, Ukraine has lost almost half of its child population – about 1.6 million children – as a result of the Russian occupation. This was stated in an interview with the Crimea. Realities project, Mykola Kuleba, head of the Save Ukraine charity organization and former Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights, said.
According to him, approximately 20% of children remained in the occupied territories of Donbas, Crimea, and other regions occupied by Russia after 2022. More than 25% are abroad, fleeing the war. Thus, almost half of Ukrainian children have been lost to the country – temporarily or permanently.
“This is exactly what Putin wanted – to devastate Ukrainian territories, to deprive us of our future,” Kuleba emphasized.
According to official figures, more than 20,000 children have been forcibly transferred to Russia or the temporarily occupied territories. However, some officials cite much higher figures: Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, suggests that it is 150,000 children, and Daria Gerasymchuk, the children’s ombudsman, estimates the number at 200,000-300,000.
As of February 26, 2025, Ukraine was able to return only 1,227 children, according to First Lady Olena Zelenska.
In March 2023, the International Criminal Court in The Hague issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Children’s Ombudsman Maria Lvova-Belova. They are suspected of war crimes – deportation and forced displacement of Ukrainian children.
