7 Ukrainian children forcibly moved to Russia were returned home inan initiative backed by Melania Trump

Seven Ukrainian children who had been taken to Russia were reunited with their families, First Lady Melania Trump announced in a statement on December 4.

According to the First Lady’s office, the group included six boys and one girl. Their return is part of a broader U.S.-supported initiative focused on repatriating Ukrainian children taken to Russia since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion.

“My dedication to guaranteeing the safe return of children to their families in this region is unwavering,” Melania Trump said, adding that ongoing cooperation “will continue to drive the process forward through the next phase.”

The First Lady has made the plight of abducted Ukrainian children a central focus of her humanitarian agenda.

In August, she sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin raising concerns over Ukrainian minors transferred to Russia. President Donald Trump delivered the letter directly to Putin during their meeting in Alaska on Aug. 15. Although the letter stopped short of assigning direct blame, it urged Putin to “protect the innocence of children” and referenced the prospect of a future peace agreement.

Ukraine has repeatedly said that the return of abducted children must be a non-negotiable condition in any eventual peace deal with Moscow.

Since the invasion began in 2022, Russia has taken more than 19,500 Ukrainian children, according to Kyiv. Fewer than 2,000 have been returned.

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for President Putin and Russia’s commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of unlawfully deporting Ukrainian minors. Moscow has denied the allegations.

Russia sends Ukrainian children to North Korea, where they are held in military camps

During a U.S. Senate Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on December 3, 2025, Ukrainian human rights lawyer Kateryna Rashevska delivered harrowing testimony revealing that Russia has begun forcibly transferring abducted Ukrainian children to military-style re-education camps in North Korea, escalating its campaign of child deportation and indoctrination to unprecedented international dimensions.

Rashevska, a legal expert with Ukraine's Regional Center for Human Rights, presented photos of two documented victims—a 12-year-old boy named Misha from occupied Donetsk and a 16-year-old girl named Liza from occupied Simferopol—who were shipped over 9,000 kilometers to North Korea's Songdowon International Children's Camp, where they endured anti-Western propaganda, including lessons on "destroying Japanese militarists" and meetings with North Korean veterans who seized the U.S. Navy ship USS Pueblo in 1968, killing and wounding American sailors. This marks a chilling expansion of Russia's network of at least 165 such facilities—spread across occupied Ukrainian territories, Russia, Belarus, and now Pyongyang—where over 19,000 confirmed abducted children face forced Russification, militarization, and cultural erasure, with Rashevska warning that the total could reach 300,000, including those trapped in occupied zones.

The revelations have intensified global outrage, with U.S. lawmakers condemning the transfers as war crimes under the Rome Statute and calling for intensified sanctions on Russia's enablers, while Ukraine's Foreign Ministry renewed demands for an international coalition to repatriate the children—only 1,859 of whom have been returned since 2022—amid fears that this Pyongyang partnership signals deeper military ties between Moscow and its isolated ally, potentially weaponizing the next generation of Ukrainians against their own homeland.

Russia accused the West of preparing for an armed confrontation with Moscow

Russia’s representative to the OSCE, Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko, accused Western governments of deliberately preparing for an armed confrontation with Moscow during a meeting of foreign ministers in Vienna, according to European Pravda.

Grushko told delegates that, in his view, Europe’s arms-control system has collapsed as a result of what he called the West’s aggressive policies. He argued that the long-standing idea of achieving greater security with fewer weapons had been replaced by an effort to gain military superiority across all domains and regions. He claimed that the EU and NATO had turned the Baltic, the Black Sea region, and the Arctic into zones of confrontation.

He also asserted that he saw no signs of willingness from the EU or NATO to de-escalate or return to what he described as peaceful coexistence. Instead, he alleged that Western governments were deliberately preparing their economies, societies, and armed forces for what they considered an inevitable military clash with Russia—one that he said the West portrays as a long-term threat while accusing Moscow of intentions to attack NATO.

During his remarks, Grushko further charged that the OSCE itself was engaged in what he called a “hybrid war” against Russia and had, in his view, shifted its agenda to focus disproportionately on Ukraine.