Ukraine verifies over 20,600 cases of child deportation, forced transfer by Russia – Bring Kids Back UA

Ukraine has confirmed more than 20,600 instances of Russian authorities deporting and forcibly transferring Ukrainian children, according to Maksym Maksymov, the head of the presidential initiative Bring Kids Back UA. As of September 18, 2026, the country has verified 20,651 cases of child deportation and forced transfer to Russia.

Each case undergoes meticulous verification by the Interagency Commission and is documented in the Registry maintained by the Ministry of Justice, Maksymov revealed in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine news agency. The verification process is painstaking, involving the confirmation of a child's identity, the details of their transfer, the status of their parents, and identifying their legal representative in Ukraine.

This arduous task involves cross-referencing multiple independent datasets, as Ukraine receives no information from Russia, which explains the slow growth in the number of verified cases. Despite this, Maksymov stressed that the figure of over 20,600 cases represents only those confirmed by Ukraine, not the total number of children abducted by Russia.