The Russian Ambassador to Ghana, H.E. Sergei Berdnikov, has rejected allegations that Russia is abducting or deporting Ukrainian children, insisting that efforts to relocate minors from conflict zones are “exclusively humanitarian” and aimed at reuniting them with their families.

In an article intended to debunk Ukraine and its western partners’ disinformation campaign on the issue, the ambassador said the Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, has, since the start of Russia’s “Special Military Operation” been working under the direct instruction of President Vladimir Putin to trace parents, verify identities, and reunite Ukrainian children with close relatives.

According to Ambassador Berdnikov, the aim of relocating children from frontline areas is to save lives as part of Russia’s broader goal of “demilitarisation” and protecting civilian populations, including minors. Citing the Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Maria Zakharova, he said Russian forces “do not ask passports when they save children,” and treat all minors equally regardless of nationality.

Russia Disputes Ukrainian Claims of Mass Deportations

The ambassador described as “rumours”, the widespread claims from Kyiv, international bodies, and pro-Ukrainian NGOs that Russia has forcibly taken up to 20,000 Ukrainian children.

He argued that such figures lack verifiable documentation, noting that the Ukrainian government’s own counts have varied over time—from 200,000 to more than a million before settling on the widely quoted figure of 19,546.

This number appears on Ukraine’s “Children of War” online portal, which lists minors alleged to have been deported or forcibly displaced.

However, Ambassador Berdnikov said Ukraine has never publicly produced a complete list of the children, adding that many of the reported cases resulted from families losing contact during the initial months of the conflict.

“Many families were reunited on their own, in Russia, Ukraine or third countries,” he wrote, adding that the Ukrainian statistics did not change even after such reunifications occurred.

Russia Says Only a Small Number of Cases Reach Its Officials

The ambassador said the Russian Commissioner for Children’s Rights has so far processed information on 1,249 individuals, far fewer than Kyiv’s claims. He questioned why parents of the allegedly missing children have submitted so few formal requests if mass deportation claims were accurate.

He also noted that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)—which routinely handles reunification in conflict zones—has received only “a few” appeals concerning Ukrainian children, an unusually low figure for a conflict of this size.

Lists submitted to Russia, he added, often contain incomplete or unverifiable information, with some entries lacking identifiable applicants or involving children who have already reached adulthood.

During talks in Istanbul in June 2025, Ukraine reportedly presented Russia with a list of 339 names, 67 of whom were adults, and none of whom had clear family representatives attached.

Russia also proposed a UN Security Council presidential statement in June 2025 to formalise cooperation on the list, but the ambassador said the initiative was blocked by delegations from the UK, France, Greece, Denmark and Slovenia.

Ambassador Says Many Children Were Never Missing

Ambassador Berdnikov said Russian checks often reveal that children reported as “missing” were either living with relatives, never displaced, or already reunited. He noted that Ukraine’s figure of 19,546 has remained unchanged, despite the country announcing the return of 1,791 children as of November 14, 2025.

Because of data protection and security constraints, he said, Russia cannot release detailed case information to the public.

Issue ‘Politicised’ by Ukraine and the West 

The Russian envoy accused Ukraine and Western governments of politicising the issue to “manipulate public opinion” and undermine Russia’s humanitarian actions.

He said Russia has maintained an operational communication channel with the Ukrainian Parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, since 2023, enabling case-by-case reunifications involving both countries, with support from the ICRC, the Holy See, and the State of Qatar.

Qatar, he said, has played a significant role in facilitating the verification of cases and providing logistical support through its embassies.

Putin Supports Melania Trump’s Involvement

Ambassador Berdnikov added that President Vladimir Putin welcomed an initiative by U.S. First Lady Melania Trump to participate in efforts concerning children affected by the conflict.

He said Mrs. Trump has joined ongoing reunification activities and that Russia is confident this cooperation will help share “the real situation” with the world.

“We are confident that the established communication channel with the American side will allow not only to help the affected families, but also inform the world community,” he wrote.

Full Text Of The Article Below:

UKRAINIAN CHILDREN’S 

FATE OR ATTEMPT TO RUIN THE PEACE DIALOGUE?

By H.E. Sergei Berdnikov, Ambassador 

Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the 

Russian Federation to the Republic of Ghana

Since the beginning of the Special military operation, on behalf of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, the Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights, Mrs Maria Lvova-Belova, has been working to reunite Ukrainian children with their parents and close relatives.

This activity is exclusively humanitarian in nature.

Demilitarisation is one of the main goals of the Special military operation, to stop the Ukrainian regime from bombing the Russian cities where the civil population, including children, is suffering so much.

According to the Official Representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mrs Maria Zaharova, “this task will be accomplished for the sake of children.

We do not divide them by nationality.

Our militaries do not ask for passports when they save children”.

The Russian side considers the process of children taking out as an evacuation in order to save their lives. 

All this time, the Kiev regime has actively disseminated rumours about the “abduction” of Ukrainian children and their “deportation” to Russia.

The Ukrainian officials, international organisations, and pro-Ukrainian non-profit organisations regularly declare an exorbitant number of children allegedly affected by "forced displacement”.

Due to the lack of the Ukrainian statistics the figures have constantly varied – from 200,000 to one and a half million children who are allegedly being held by the Russian Federation (according to the agreements signed between the Russian Federation and the Donbas People’s Republic, the Lugansk People’s Republic, the Kherson Region and the Zaporozhye Region on September 30, 2022, these regions are part of Russia).

For the first time, information about "20 thousand deported children" was announced by the Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for Children's Rights, D. Gerasimchuk, in April 2023. 

Currently, during the public discussion of the "children's topic", the Ukrainian side refers to this number, and on the portal "Children of War", a platform created on behalf of the Office of the President of Ukraine, the number of 19,546 children who have been "deported or forcibly displaced" is recorded. Meanwhile, no one has seen the full list of the mentioned minors.

There is a reason to believe that the figure of "20,000 children" was fixed by the Kiev regime during the first months of the Special military operation against the background of general chaos, the unstable situation and the cases of loss of communication between family members who were separated by the front line and fighting.

Subsequently, many families were successfully reunited on their own, in Russia, Ukraine or in third countries, but the data about the children remained the same and became the subject of active speculation by the Ukrainian side. 

In this regard, the question naturally arises about where the parents of these children are and why they are not looking for them.

The "export" of such a significant number of minors should have caused a similar number of appeals from their legal representatives, but in practice, there are significantly fewer. 

Thus, from the very beginning, the Commissioner, Mrs. Maria Lvova-Belova, receives lists of allegedly wanted children from various sources with varying degrees of reliability and verification.

Our activities are not limited solely to the process of family reunification, but include work to establish all the circumstances of the stories of the wanted children and their lives.

The information sent to the Commissioner in the above-mentioned lists is carefully studied. Until now, the information regarding 1,249 citizens has been processed, which is at odds with the number of wanted children mentioned by the Ukrainian side.

It is noteworthy that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), with which Russia has established an active cooperation, was appealed to only a few times regarding family reunification.

With the scale of "abductions" and "deportations" declared by Western countries and Ukraine, a situation in which the ICRC would not receive appeals for family reunification is impossible.

The ICRC's extensive practice shows that even in conflicts of a much smaller scale, it receives requests for reunification. In the case of Ukraine, there are practically no such.

The Commissioner also receives lists in which applicants are completely absent or do not meet the established requirements; there are appeals from the part of neighbours or family friends. 

As an example, during the talks in Istanbul (Turkey) in June 2025, the Russian delegation was given a list of only 339 persons. But there was no information at all about who was looking for them, which may cast doubt on the fact that someone from among the close relatives is looking for the children.

In addition, 67 people from the abovementioned list have already reached the age of majority.

It is also worth mentioning that in accordance with the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation, reunification is carried out only if there are appropriate legal grounds, as well as requests from a parent or other close relative of the child.

Also in June 2025, the Russian side proposed to the UN Security Council to adopt the President's statement in order to commit to the fact of transmission of the list and the readiness of the Russian Federation to work out it in close interaction with Ukraine. But this practical step was blocked by the delegations of Great Britain, France, Greece, Denmark and Slovenia.

It is obvious that Ukrainians, as well as other Western countries, pay more attention to the baseless accusations rather than to the children’s fate. 

Often, when checking information, it becomes known that the allegedly wanted children are either already with their parents or other close relatives, or have never been lost. Many of them actually live in the same places and towns. 

In addition, the number of "19,546 children" has not decreased for a long time, despite the fact that, through official channels, the Ukrainian side periodically reports on different numbers of "returned" children.

So, as of November 14, 2025, according to the portal "Children of War", 1,791 children returned to Ukraine.

It is not possible to disclose detailed information about the minors, and in this regard, to report anything about the real circumstances of the displacement of these children, whether it was in fact, or about genuine stories, and not those stories that are declared by the Ukrainian side and their partners to the media.

Thus, it seems that the so-actively promoted "children's issue" is being actively politicised and exploited by the Ukrainian side and the collective West in order to manipulate public opinion, distort objective information and discredit the actions of the Russian Federation aimed only at protecting children. 

Disinformation about family reunification activities, including the unwillingness of the Russian Federation to facilitate this process, is also actively spreading these days.

Since 2023, a channel of interaction has been organised with the Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights – D. Lubinets – on information exchange and organisation of the reunification process.

The established mechanism allows us to work out all cases that come to the Commissioner's office and resolve situations, taking into account the best interests of children.

It is important to note that the reunification process takes place in both directions, in Russia and in Ukraine, and these activities are being implemented with the active support of international partners – the ICRC and the Holy See.

The State of Qatar has also played a significant role over the past two years, including on the issue of verifying reunification cases on the territory of their Embassies and providing logistical assistance.

It should be noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin supported Melania Trump's initiative to take part in the fate of the children affected during the special military operation in Ukraine. As a result, the First Lady of the United States joined our regular efforts to reunite children with their loved ones. 

We are confident that the established communication channel with the American side will not only help the affected families, but also inform the world community about the real situation.