By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
MOSCOW/KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Pope Francis expressed concern Wednesday that “war is a human defeat” after new evidence emerged that the Russia-Ukraine war impacted those whose lives have just begun. Investigators say Ukrainian children were stripped of their Ukrainian identity and placed with Russian families.
As fighting intensifies ahead of possible peace negotiations, a U.S. State Department-backed investigation has identified 314 Ukrainian children taken to Russia in the early months of the war in Ukraine.
Researchers say it was part of a systematic, Kremlin-funded program to “Russify” them. Yale’s School of Public Health, which conducted the research, said Russian presidential aircraft and funds were used in a program that took children from occupied Ukrainian territories.
They were allegedly stripped of their Ukrainian identity and placed with Russian families.
In March 2023, the international criminal court issued arrest warrants for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his child rights’ commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, for the alleged war crime of deportation of Ukrainian children.
However, in a previous interview, Lvova-Balova denied wrongdoing. “They thanked our soldiers for saving, helping, and not abandoning them. For getting them out of the airstrikes,” she claimed.
“Since when do words of gratitude constitute propaganda? Those are ordinary, sincere human emotions. No one has been forced to take [Russian citizenship, as Ukraine often claims,” Lvova-Balova wondered in an interview with the Vice news outlet.
Yet her words have done little to convince those searching for their children of Ukraine, which insisted on Tuesday that membership of the NATO military alliance NATO was the only “real guarantee” for its security.
NATO UMBRELLA
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has even suggested putting territories he controls under the NATO umbrella while a diplomatic solution could be found for Russian-occupied regions.
However, foreign ministers from the alliance sidestepped Kyiv’s push for an invitation at their meeting ahead of Donald J. Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency.
Yet, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said they would continue providing Kyiv with military aid as, in his words, peace talks have to be done from a position of strength. “i would say more military aid and less discussions on what a peace process could look like,” he argued.
“You and I will – are smart enough to think of many ways how to deal with that, but we have to bring Ukraine to that position that it can start, and it can only start when they are in a position of strength,” Rutte stressed.
There is concern among critics that this approach will mean more bloodshed in a war that has already killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people. “Pray for peace,” Pope Francis said.
Yet, as the near three-year-long war continues, many Ukrainian children will soon face another Christmas without their biological parents.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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