WASHINGTON – Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) led a bipartisan group of senators in introducing a resolution calling for the return of abducted Ukrainian children before finalizing any peace agreement to end Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. 

The resolution condemns Russia’s abduction and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children and notes Russia’s invasion has increasingly exposed children to human trafficking and exploitation, child labor, sexual violence, hunger, injury, trauma and death. 

“The mass kidnapping of Ukrainian children by Russia is an atrocity,” said Klobuchar. “We cannot accept a world where children are abducted during wartime and used as a form of hostage-taking for negotiations. These children must be returned unconditionally before any peace deal is finalized.”

“Putin’s inhumane and unprovoked attack on Ukraine started the largest war in Europe since World War II. He has kidnapped thousands of children to brainwash and Russify them in an attempt to destroy their cultural identity and heritage. The United States ought to demand these children are returned before inking a deal to end the war in Ukraine,” Grassley said. 

Additional cosponsors of the resolution include Senators Joni Ernst (R-IA), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and John Fetterman (D-PA), Roger Wicker (R-MS) and Rick Scott (R-FL). You can find the full text of the resolution here.

This resolution follows a bipartisan letter sent in March, led by Senators Klobuchar, Grassley and Durbin, calling for the State Department to continue supporting efforts to investigate Russia’s abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children.

To date, Ukrainian authorities have received at least 19,546 confirmed reports of unlawful deportations and forced transfers of Ukrainian children to Russia, Belarus or Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory. The abductions aim to erase the children’s Ukrainian names, language and identity. As of April 16, Ukraine and its partners have only managed to return 1,274 abducted children. 

The State Department’s 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report found Russia recruits or uses child soldiers, has a state-sponsored policy or pattern of human trafficking and is among the worst hubs for human trafficking in the world. 

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