First Lady Helps to Reunite 8 Children with Their Families amid Ukraine War
Last Friday, First Lady Melania Trump shared some very good news: eight children who had been displaced from their homes during the Russian war with Ukraine had been returned to their parents within the previous 24 hours.
Three of the children had been displaced to the Russian Federation because of frontline fighting, and the other five had been separated from family members across borders, including one girl who was reunited with her family in Russia. Mrs. Trump even said that Russia was providing detailed background and medical information about each child, and the information has been verified by both the Ukrainian and United States governments.
The first lady explained that she had had “an open channel of communication” with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the last three months ever since President Trump had handed Putin a letter from Mrs. Trump in front of international media bringing attention to the horrific situation that these children were forced into. In the letter, the first lady reminded Putin that it is parents’ duty to “nurture the next generation’s hope.” Yet so many kids are facing darkness and their dreams are silenced because of the war. She appealed to our shared humanity, telling Putin “you can singlehandedly restore their melodic laughter” if you would return these children with a “stroke of the pen today.” Apparently, the letter had an immediate effect, creating the current open communication between the Russian government and the office of the first lady.
While this is wonderful news that we can celebrate and thank God for, it also reminds us of the tragic fact that there are still close to 20,000 Ukrainian children that have been displaced from their parents during this war which has now been going on for almost three years. (The Yale School of Public Health estimates that this number may even be as high as 35,000.) According to Bring Kids Back (an initiative of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to bring Ukrainian children home), 19,546 children have been unlawfully deported and forcefully transferred, and 1,700 have been returned from deportation, forced transfers, or temporarily occupied territories.
A few of these 1,700 children that have returned home have shared their devastating stories. Russian soldiers abducted many of them and took them to “recreation camps” inside Russia and Belarus. These “camps” are actually orphanages, psychiatric institutions, and military schools. Some children are placed in foster homes or with adoptive families. Russian authorities do everything they can to remove the children’s love for Ukraine and erase their Ukrainian identity and instead “Russify” them with Russian materials, pledges, and music. Threatening to harm their families, some are forced to join Russia’s military or perform acts of sabotage and espionage.
One 12-year-old boy name Illia told the group Friends of Europe, “I was nine when it all started. We lived in Mariupol: me, my mom. I loved school and my friends. We had a beautiful home. Then the explosions began. A missile hit our house, and we couldn’t live there anymore, so we went to a neighbor’s. But that night, there was another blast. I was hit by shrapnel. My mom was hit in the forehead. We buried her in the yard.”
Illia went on to say, “Then the Russian military came and ordered us to leave. That’s how I ended up in Donetsk. I had several surgeries there: the first one, without anesthesia, to remove a fragment. They made me learn to write in Russian. One doctor told me I shouldn’t just say ‘Glory to Ukraine’ anymore, but ‘Glory to Ukraine as part of Russia.’ Then one day, my grandma saw me in a propaganda hospital video. She managed to come and take me back — we arrived in Kyiv on my birthday. We didn’t celebrate — I was unwell, and doctors removed four more pieces of shrapnel. But now I want to become a doctor myself.”
Another 12-year-old, named Oleksandr, shared, “The Russians said that my mother did not need me and that I would be given to a foster family in Russia.” Thirteen-year-old Artem recalled the moment he was abducted: “I wanted to escape through the backyard but was afraid they might shoot me. So I had to get in the truck with them. It was so scary.”
Thankfully, there is hope that more children will soon be reunited with their families. According to the first lady, her office’s coordination with Russia is ongoing and plans are underway to reunite them in the “immediate future.” She said that her mission consists of two goals: “to optimize a transparent free-flow exchange of health-related information surrounding all children who have fell victim to this war” and to “facilitate the regular reunification of children with their families until each individual returns home.”
We need to pray that all of these children that are victims of war are reunited with their families as soon as possible. As the first lady said, “We must foster a future for our children which is rich with potential, security, and complete with free will. A world where dreams will be realized rather than faded by war.”
AUTHOR
Kathy Athearn
Kathy Athearn is a correspondence writer at Family Research Council. She studied Political Science and Religion at Hope College, was a Witherspoon Fellow at FRC, and is passionate about helping Christians contribute a biblical worldview to the public sphere.
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