Children train at a boxing school in an underground shelter in the frontline city of Kherson in southern Ukraine.Image: keystone
As the United Nations takes a stand against Russian war crimes, new alarming evidence is coming to light.
Dec 4, 2025, 9:31 p.mDec 4, 2025, 9:31 p.m
Bojan Stula / ch media
For EU Foreign Affairs Representative Kaja Kallas, it is a “landmark decision”: On Wednesday, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution with a clear majority that obliges Russia to immediately and unconditionally return all abducted Ukrainian children. 91 countries voted in favor, 12 against – including Russia, Belarus, Iran and Cuba. 57 countries abstained, including China, India and Brazil.
For Kaja Kallasist it is a “groundbreaking decision.” Image: keystone
However, the decision has a serious flaw, as the following overview shows.
The content of the adopted resolution
The resolution adopted on Wednesday not only calls for the repatriation of children abducted by Russia from Ukrainian territories since 2014, but also an immediate end to all further deportations, family separations, forced adoptions and re-education programs. The UN Secretary-General is tasked by the General Assembly with coordinating the organization’s efforts to liaise with Moscow and provide international observers with access to abducted children.
The meaning
Although only indirectly, the adopted resolution is a further signal from the international community that Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, with all its brutal excesses and war crimes, will not be accepted without comment.
There is an arrest warrant against Vladimir Putin for child abduction.Image: imago images / mikhail metzel
In the case of Russian child abductions, this is another high-profile accusation following the arrest warrant against Kremlin ruler Vladimir Putin and his children’s rights representative Marija Lwowa-Belowa by the International Criminal Court in March 2023. The two arrest warrants were the first international measure against alleged Russian war crimes in Ukraine. At the same time, this is the first time since then that a head of state of a permanent member of the UN Security Council has been sought in this way.
The other side of the coin
How the UN resolution can be effectively enforced against Russia’s will remains, as always with such decisions, an insoluble problem. Apart from “soft” methods such as appeals and attempts at negotiations, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has no real means of exerting pressure. The success of repatriation work will therefore continue to largely depend on the persistence of aid organizations such as the Red Cross.
91 countries voted yes at the UN General Assembly.Image: AP
However, the state record in the vote is even more frightening. Although the nominal majority voted in favor, the 91 yes votes do not even represent half of all UN members. The list of 69 countries that did not support the resolution illustrates the isolation of Western Ukraine supporters. With India, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria, Brazil, Bangladesh and Ethiopia, eight of the ten most populous countries in the world have sided with the aggressor Russia either directly or by abstaining. Of the top ten, only the USA, the third largest country in terms of population, voted for the resolution.
Military experts such as Austrian Colonel Markus Reisner have long emphasized that Russia is not waging the war against Ukraine alone, but is receiving great support, for example from North Korea. The former Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Andrij Melnyk, calls the UN vote a “warning shot for Europe”: “The Global South is ignoring our concerns.” It is therefore time to “enforce Europe’s interests vigorously”.
New dimension: children abducted to North Korea
New allegations further exacerbate the picture of Russian practices: Ukrainian lawyer Kateryna Rashevska reported to a US Senate subcommittee that Ukrainian minors had been taken to North Korea. She specifically named two cases: twelve-year-old Misha from the occupied Donetsk region and 16-year-old Liza from Simferopol. Both were taken to a camp in Songdowon, North Korea – 9,000 kilometers from their homeland.
“At least 19,546 children have been abducted from occupied territories since the Russian war of aggression began in February 2022.”Image: keystone
According to Rashevska, children there are ideologized militarily, for example with the aim of “destroying Japanese militarists”.
Extent of child abductions
According to the Ukrainian authorities, at least 19,546 children have been abducted from occupied territories since the Russian war of aggression began in February 2022. Many were adopted into Russian families, others were taken to so-called re-identification or re-education camps. The Ukrainian human rights organization, Regional Center for Human Rights, documented 165 such facilities – not only in Russia and Belarus, but also in North Korea.
According to the Yale Humanitarian Research Lab, at least 35,000 Ukrainian children remain in Russian custody. Some would even be forcibly recruited and sent to the front. Ukrainian government authorities consider these figures to be grossly understated: Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets speaks of up to 150,000, presidential representative Darija Herasymchuk even of up to 300,000 abducted minors.
According to research by the online portal “Kyiv Independent”, a total of around 1.6 million Ukrainian children still live in areas controlled by Russia. Despite international pressure, repatriation is proving difficult. According to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, only 1,859 children have been returned so far. (aargauerzeitung.ch)