(OSV News) -- Forty religious leaders have sent a letter to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, calling for the return of nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children forcibly transferred to Russia and Russian-controlled territories.
"As the United States advances negotiations for a ceasefire and a potential peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia, one of Ukraine's key conditions is the safe return of these abducted children," said the leaders in the April 3 letter. "No peace deal should be finalized until Ukraine's children are returned home."
Among the signatories, most of whom represent various Christian denominations and outreachers are Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; Myal Greene, president and CEO of World Relief; Brent Leatherwood, president of the Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission; and Father Jason Charron, a Catholic priest of the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of St. Josaphat in Parma, Ohio.
Ukraine's government officially counts 19,546 Ukrainian children that have been taken by Russian authorities for "reeducation," placement and adoption by Russian families. Citing data from the charity Save Ukraine, the letter's authors noted that "1,256 children have been returned," which is "less than 6% of the 19,000+ children deported to Russia since 2022."
Russian officials themselves claim the number of children in Russian custody is far higher, with the Russian Federation's child commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, stating that more than 700,000 Ukrainian children have been transported to Russia since the start of that nation's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Lvova-Blova, along with Russian President Vladimir Putin, is the subject of an arrest warrant issued in March 2023 by the International Criminal Court for the war crimes of unlawful deportation and transfer of the children to Russia.
The April 3 faith leaders' letter noted the forced transfers were "systematic," with children "ranging in age from four months to 17 years old ... subjected to political re-education, military training, and forced assimilation into Russian society.
"Many have been placed in Russian families, illegally adopted, and had their birth certificates altered to erase their Ukrainian identities," the letter stated. "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."
Multiple reports from an array of human rights groups, along with firsthand accounts from the relatively few children returned to Ukraine, have corroborated such treatment.
Yale University's Humanitarian Research Lab, led by executive director Nathaniel Raymond, has been tracking in detail the locations of some 35,000 children abducted from Ukraine by Russia.
The State Department abruptly halted funding for Raymond's initiative, clarifying March 27 it would provide short-term support, but ultimately terminate further aid.
In their letter to Trump and Rubio, the faith leaders described the deportations as "not just a tragedy" or "an unfortunate consequence of war," but a "deliberate and systematic act of injustice."
Under the Geneva Conventions, children are explicitly protected during wartime, with individual and mass deportations from occupied territories to those of the occupying power strictly prohibited by international law. The forcible transfer of children of the targeted group to another group is also a form of genocide under the Genocide Convention.
"As faith leaders, we believe that every child is made in God's image," wrote the faith leaders, adding that "Scripture calls us to defend the 'quartet of the vulnerable' ... the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner."
"Christ himself commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves," and "to seek justice for the oppressed," they said.
"We urge you, as leaders of the free world, to ensure that Ukraine's children are returned home without precondition in advance of peace talks," they wrote in the letter. "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 non-negotiable."
They called on Trump and Rubio "to continue to take decisive action to ensure that these children are safely returned home before any peace deal is finalized.
"Now is the time to lead with courage and moral clarity," the letter concluded.
(Gina Christian is a multimedia reporter for OSV News.)
