An exhibition spotlighting the 20,000 missing Ukrainian children was unveiled Thursday on the National Mall, as Capitol Hill lawmakers accused Russia of committing war crimes by abducting the youths and severing their ties to their homeland.
A wall of thousands of miniature teddy bears stretched almost the full length of East Seaton Park between 3rd and 4th streets Northwest, with supporters showing up to pin another stuffed animal to the display that read “Putin abducted 20,000 Ukrainian children. Bring them back.”
Organizers with nonprofit Razom for Ukraine said there are far more than 20,000 missing children from the war, which is the Ukrainian government’s official count. Some advocates said a more accurate number could be north of 200,000 children.
Lawmakers said the kidnappings are part of Russia’s broader plan to demoralize Ukrainians by erasing their cultural ties to their country as the war enters its fifth year.
“What Vladimir Putin is doing here is not trying to defeat a nation alone. He’s trying to destroy a people,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Connecticut Democrat, said during a press conference at the wall.
“That is the purpose of abducting children, changing their names, reeducating them, killing their identity, if not the children themselves, making sure that they never grow up speaking their own language. … He is trying to destroy Ukraine in a way that harkens back to the 1930s and 1940s.”
Kateryna Lisunova, a spokeswoman for Razom for Ukraine, said many of the children are taken by Russian soldiers after their parents were killed in battles or were separated by occupying forces, largely in the contested eastern portions of the country.
“There is a lot of documented cases when children’s parents were killed in front of them, and children were taken to camps,” said Anton Alksnin, who is part of a group of Ukrainian-born U.S. citizens who meet with federal lawmakers.
Ms. Lisunova said the abducted children were then given over to Russian families, and the state even produces a catalogue with descriptions of children who can be claimed.
Treatment of the abductees ranges from propagandizing them against Ukraine to torturing them, she said. Those who are old enough to serve in the military have also been conscripted into the Russian army and sent to fight against their fellow Ukrainians.
Efforts to retrieve the children are complex and difficult, since many of them have had their names changed and were moved into the Russian interior. First lady Melania Trump had a hand in helping return 26 children to their families by working directly with the Russian government.
Rep. Jamie Raskin said the abductions qualified as a war crime and could be considered a form of genocide as well.
“We must share their anguish and their pain. We must get those kids back,” the Maryland Democrat said.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
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