After more than two years of anguish and uncertainty, the 20 Israeli hostages in Hamas custody have been returned to their families. This milestone diplomatic achievement is a key step towards the implementation of phase one of President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan. It should also serve as a catalyst for the recovery of missing persons from Ukraine.
Since Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014, forced disappearances have become a tragic part of life in eastern Ukraine. According to a 2019 US State Department report, 12 Crimean residents disappeared in the immediate aftermath of the Russian occupation and were subsequently found dead. These disappearances were not investigated by the Crimean authorities and were instead erroneously labelled as suicides.
This climate of impunity and deception fuelled far worse abuses. The FSB carried out mass raids against Crimean Tatar homes to repress anti-Russian activism on the peninsula. As the 2015 Minsk II Accords frayed under the weight of pro-Russian separatist aggression, arbitrary arrests in alleged “Ukrainian spies” and “terrorists” increased in Donetsk. Although the International Criminal Court (ICC) published a report in 2019 that condemned some of these abuses, Ukraine received inadequate substantive assistance from the international community.
It is therefore unsurprising that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine exacerbated the country’s missing persons crisis. Ukrainian officials allege that over 70,000 people have disappeared since the war began in February 2022. Of these, only 12,000 Ukrainians have been confirmed dead, released in prisoner exchanges or otherwise identified.
Of these missing people, at least 20,000 are children. Under the guise of protecting them from war zones, the Russian military has systematically abducted vast numbers of Ukrainian children. The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Laboratory estimates 8,400 Ukrainian children are currently residing in five dozen facilities in Russia and Belarus. These facilities serve as gateways to adoption by Russian parents and participation in re-education programs that aim to eradicate their Ukrainian linguistic and cultural identity.
Although the ICC indicted President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for these abductions in 2023, these abuses have continued unabated. In a show of contempt against the ICC ruling, ultranationalist State Duma Deputy Sergey Mironov adopted Margarita, a two-year-old girl who was seized by Russian forces from the Kherson Regional Children’s Hospital.
Through the publication of Ukrainian orphans, the Russian-controlled education ministry in Luhansk has institutionalised child trafficking. Ukrainian teenagers are also being dragged into military-style training camps and conscripted on the frontlines.
While Russia’s abuses against missing Ukrainian children are especially harrowing, they are just one of many violations carried out against disappeared persons. The vast majority of Ukrainian POWs are held incommunicado, and their families do not know whether they are alive or dead. In these isolated facilities, Ukrainian POWs are systematically subjected to torture and denied medical treatment for their injuries. Summary executions of POWs through primitive methods like beheading by swords are also becoming more frequent.
Due to access constraints for human-rights watchdogs and critical information gaps, the wartime recovery of Ukrainian missing persons is extremely difficult. Even with these resource and capacity limitations, there have been some noteworthy breakthroughs.
The United Arab Emirates has mediated the release of close to 5,000 Ukrainian and Russian POWs through prisoner exchanges. Approximately 1,400 Ukrainian children have also been returned to their parents. Qatari mediation and ad hoc efforts like First Lady Melania Trump’s dialogue with Putin have been critical in facilitating these returns.
While these developments are promising, so much more needs to be done. The US’s March 2025 decision to cut government funding for the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, which has traced the identities of 30,000 Ukrainian children, is a grave mistake. The US’s concomitant withdrawal from the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine is another self-inflicted setback.
As these olive branches to Putin have not corralled Russia towards the peace, the US should resume fully supporting these critical initiatives and elevate the recovery of missing Ukrainians on its international agenda. Ukraine’s Western partners should also intensify sanctions against Russian individuals and institutions involved in these heinous human rights abuses. Britain’s September 3 decision to sanction 11 Russian nationals and organisations involved in the re-education of Ukrainian children sets a precedent for what should be done.
Trump’s Gaza peace deal was a triumph for victims of forced disappearances across the globe. Now is the time for him to extend this success to Ukraine.
After more than two years of anguish and uncertainty, the 20 Israeli hostages in Hamas custody have been returned to their families. This milestone diplomatic achievement is a key step towards the implementation of phase one of President Donald Trump’s Gaza ceasefire plan. It should also serve as a catalyst for the recovery of missing persons from Ukraine.
Since Russia annexed Crimea in March 2014, forced disappearances have become a tragic part of life in eastern Ukraine. According to a 2019 US State Department report, 12 Crimean residents disappeared in the immediate aftermath of the Russian occupation and were subsequently found dead. These disappearances were not investigated by the Crimean authorities and were instead erroneously labelled as suicides.
This climate of impunity and deception fuelled far worse abuses. The FSB carried out mass raids against Crimean Tatar homes to repress anti-Russian activism on the peninsula. As the 2015 Minsk II Accords frayed under the weight of pro-Russian separatist aggression, arbitrary arrests in alleged “Ukrainian spies” and “terrorists” increased in Donetsk. Although the International Criminal Court (ICC) published a report in 2019 that condemned some of these abuses, Ukraine received inadequate substantive assistance from the international community.
It is therefore unsurprising that Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine exacerbated the country’s missing persons crisis. Ukrainian officials allege that over 70,000 people have disappeared since the war began in February 2022. Of these, only 12,000 Ukrainians have been confirmed dead, released in prisoner exchanges or otherwise identified.
Of these missing people, at least 20,000 are children. Under the guise of protecting them from war zones, the Russian military has systematically abducted vast numbers of Ukrainian children. The Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Laboratory estimates 8,400 Ukrainian children are currently residing in five dozen facilities in Russia and Belarus. These facilities serve as gateways to adoption by Russian parents and participation in re-education programs that aim to eradicate their Ukrainian linguistic and cultural identity.
Although the ICC indicted President Vladimir Putin and Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for these abductions in 2023, these abuses have continued unabated. In a show of contempt against the ICC ruling, ultranationalist State Duma Deputy Sergey Mironov adopted Margarita, a two-year-old girl who was seized by Russian forces from the Kherson Regional Children’s Hospital.
Through the publication of Ukrainian orphans, the Russian-controlled education ministry in Luhansk has institutionalised child trafficking. Ukrainian teenagers are also being dragged into military-style training camps and conscripted on the frontlines.
While Russia’s abuses against missing Ukrainian children are especially harrowing, they are just one of many violations carried out against disappeared persons. The vast majority of Ukrainian POWs are held incommunicado, and their families do not know whether they are alive or dead. In these isolated facilities, Ukrainian POWs are systematically subjected to torture and denied medical treatment for their injuries. Summary executions of POWs through primitive methods like beheading by swords are also becoming more frequent.
Due to access constraints for human-rights watchdogs and critical information gaps, the wartime recovery of Ukrainian missing persons is extremely difficult. Even with these resource and capacity limitations, there have been some noteworthy breakthroughs.
The United Arab Emirates has mediated the release of close to 5,000 Ukrainian and Russian POWs through prisoner exchanges. Approximately 1,400 Ukrainian children have also been returned to their parents. Qatari mediation and ad hoc efforts like First Lady Melania Trump’s dialogue with Putin have been critical in facilitating these returns.
While these developments are promising, so much more needs to be done. The US’s March 2025 decision to cut government funding for the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, which has traced the identities of 30,000 Ukrainian children, is a grave mistake. The US’s concomitant withdrawal from the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine is another self-inflicted setback.
As these olive branches to Putin have not corralled Russia towards the peace, the US should resume fully supporting these critical initiatives and elevate the recovery of missing Ukrainians on its international agenda. Ukraine’s Western partners should also intensify sanctions against Russian individuals and institutions involved in these heinous human rights abuses. Britain’s September 3 decision to sanction 11 Russian nationals and organisations involved in the re-education of Ukrainian children sets a precedent for what should be done.
Trump’s Gaza peace deal was a triumph for victims of forced disappearances across the globe. Now is the time for him to extend this success to Ukraine.