Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska addressed a crisis affecting Ukraine’s most vulnerable population while at the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday.
Three-and-a-half years into the war between Russia and Ukraine, Russia is said to have abducted more than 20,000 Ukrainian children.
“Russia has abducted thousands of our children. Changed their names, surnames, consciousness. Lied to them, intimidated them, [and] drove them to death,” Zelenska said.
The issues of Ukraine’s children is a topic first lady Melania Trump also has expressed concern over.
Mrs. Trump sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin in August urging him to protect the “innocence” of children affected by Russia’s war with Ukraine.
“I’m happy to say that just now our first ladies, first ladies of Ukraine, first ladies of the United States … will have a meeting about Ukrainian children. Thank you for Melania’s personal involvement to this topic,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said while seated next to President Donald Trump ahead of the two leaders’ closed-door meeting on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly to discuss the ongoing war.
Society “welcomes the conversations between Olena Zelenska and Melania Trump about the crucial issue of the return of abducted children of Ukraine,” Katya Pavlevych, adviser on the issue of abducted children at the pro-Ukraine policy organization Razom, told The Daily Signal.
“It is very encouraging to see the commitment of the first ladies to the well-being of all children,” Pavlevych said, adding, that is clear “Russia is not going to return the stolen children willingly.”
“The world cannot lose anymore time to return Ukraine’s children. Every day they are subjected to a brutal indoctrination, recruited to the Russian army, exposed to an illegal adoption and a risk of trafficking,” Pavlevych said.
Ukrainian children have been taken to more than 200 locations in Russia and the Ukrainian territory Russia currently occupies, according to a report from Yale University on Ukraine’s abducted children. “Re-education activities” have also occurred at 130 locations, according to the report.
“It is time for the world to apply maximum pressure on Putin,” Pavlevych says. “It is time to act and be tough with Russia. And that’s where America has a real leverage. Abducted children must be returned unconditionally. People involved in abduction should be sanctioned and held accountable.”
Much attention was on Trump and Zelenskyy on Tuesday as the two leaders met to discuss the path to ending the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Following the meeting, Trump said he thinks Ukraine can, with the help of the European Union, win back all the territory Russia has taken since the war began in late February of 2022. Trump’s comments represent the most pro-Ukraine position the president has taken on the war since his return to the White House in January.
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