Last week, during a call with European leaders, President Donald Trump announced that he intends to meet in person with Russian President Vladimir Putin this Friday. This announcement comes as Trump has grown increasingly frustrated with Putin. Last month, Trump announced that North Atlantic Treaty Organization allies will finance the purchase of Patriot missile defense systems and other weapons for Ukraine, his most significant move yet to support Kyiv in a war with Russia he’s long hoped to end.

In this Friday meeting with Putin, it is imperative that Trump ensure that the return of nearly 20,000 children Russia has illegally abducted is a nonnegotiable condition in any peace agreement.

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Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Putin has intentionally targeted the most vulnerable: children.

Putin has ordered the systematic forced transfer of more than 35,000 children to Russia and Russian-controlled territories. These children, ranging in age from 4 months to 17 years old, have been subjected to political re-education, military training, and forced assimilation into Russian society. Many have been placed in Russian families, illegally adopted, and even had their birth certificates altered to erase their Ukrainian identities. The Russian government has denied Ukrainian children access to their families, subjected them to physical abuse, and failed to provide them with adequate food and care. 

The forced deportation of nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children is not just a tragedy; it is a grave moral and legal atrocity. This is not an unfortunate consequence of war. It is a deliberate and systematic act of injustice.

The Geneva Convention gives children special protection status during war. Deportation or forced transfer of a population is against international law and could constitute crimes against humanity.

Trump raised the topic of Ukraine’s missing children during a phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky on March 19 and promised to work closely with both parties to ensure those children were returned home.

In a rare show of unity, a bipartisan and bicameral resolution was introduced in Congress calling for the return of all Ukrainian children before any peace deal with Russia is finalized. The resolution is led by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Roger Wicker (R-MS), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. The weight of multiple Senate committee chairs signals the urgent importance of the swift return of Ukraine’s abducted children.

Wicker said of the abducted children: “We wanted to make sure that it was a part of the discussions. Vladimir Putin should be in prison with the other notorious war criminals of history. And it’s a shame that we are not coming down on him as forcefully as we should.” 

As Trump prepares to meet with Putin, I also urge Congress to continue prioritizing these vulnerable children.

This past spring, the organization I work for, World Relief, led a letter of prominent faith leaders to Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the plight of Ukraine’s abducted children. Less than a week after sending the letter, we had the opportunity to meet with the deputy special envoy for Russia and Ukraine, John Coale, to discuss this matter.

We continue to reiterate that every child is made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). Scripture calls us to defend the “quartet of the vulnerable” (Zechariah 7:10): the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner. Christ himself commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:39) and seek justice for the oppressed (Isaiah 1:17). 

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At its core, one of the fundamental responsibilities of government is safeguarding the well-being of society’s most vulnerable members, ensuring they are protected from harm and never reduced to pawns in political or ideological struggles. 

I urge Trump, as the leader of the free world, to ensure that Ukraine’s children are returned home without precondition in advance of peace talks. Ukraine’s children must not be used as bargaining chips in geopolitical negotiations. Their safety, dignity, and right to be reunited with their families must be nonnegotiable. 

Chelsea Sobolik is the director of government relations for World Relief, a global Christian humanitarian organization and the largest Evangelical refugee resettlement in the United States. She is the author of Called to Cultivate: A Gospel Vision for Women and Work and Longing for Motherhood: Holding onto Hope in the Midst of Childlessness.