Irish Left With Ukraine - Neither Moscow nor WashingtonReport of Public Meeting : Solidarity With the People of Ukraine – Bring the Stolen Children Home (Tuesday March 24 2026)
C25b-4-3DownloadCatriona Crowe’s Speech :
UKRAINE STOLEN CHILDREN
Ukraine is now in the fifth year of its war with Russia, an unprovoked invasion of a sovereign state based on Vladimir Putin’s desire to reconstitute the Russian Empire. It is estimated that casualties for both sides (killed, wounded and missing) will amount to 2 million sometime this year. Casualties are breaking down at a ratio of 2-2.5 to 1, with Russia suffering the largest proportion, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
Because of the dangerous and stupid antics of Donald Trump, international attention has shifted away from Ukraine to the war in Iran, and Ukraine’s valiant and highly skilled resistance to Russia is struggling without adequate weaponry to keep their amazing advantage over ill-trained and demoralised Russian troops. It is really important that the spotlight be kept on their needs, and that Europe finds a way to circumvent the despicable Putin lackey, Victor Orban, in order to give Ukraine the resources it needs to win, now that Trump has abandoned people who are fighting an existential war for their own survival and the survival of eastern Europe.
As well as the horrors of the front line, the loss of many thousands of young men, the indiscriminate killing of civilians, the destruction of infrastructure and the family displacement of millions of people, there is another insidious aspect to Russia’s appalling prosecution of this illegal war: the kidnapping of Ukrainian children and their removal to Russia, where they can be adopted by Russian families.
I’m sure most of you saw the TV documentary, Putin’s Stolen Children, which aired in December last year. It focuses on the kidnapping of children from the Kherson Children’s Home, shortly after the Russian occupation of the city in February 2022. It was liberated in November of that year, and intrepid investigators, Victoria and Maria, set about trying to find the children, all under the age of five.
The first child they sought was Viktor, aged 2, who was in the children’s home because he had a serious swallowing problem, and was being cared for prior to having an operation. Victoria visited his mother, Olha, and showed her video of Viktor being put into a Russian bus en route to his new so-called home. She wept, of course. There is a lot of weeping in this film.
The Russian authorities, meanwhile, had been making up fantastic lies about the disappeared children; that they were to be sold by the Ukrainians to European traffickers to exploit their organs. This rubbish was broadcast with much fake outrage on Russian TV, a cesspool of lies and justification for Putin’s atrocities.
Through brilliant detective work, Victoria tracked Viktor to an institution in Crimea. Because his mother was alive (some of the children were orphans), there was a chance that if Olha came in person to Crimea, he could be given back to her. Olha’s sister, Ludmilla, agreed to go with her, despite them both being terrified of how they might be treated by the Russians, and at the end of the movie, we see little Viktor arrive with his mother and his aunt at the border crossing, to be re-united with his father and his sister, and to meet Victoria. That was a moment for weeping, this time for joy.
None of the other children had been returned by the time of broadcast: Nastya, 4, whom we saw on video doing a brilliant imitation of Santa Clause delivering gifts or Ilya, 2, and Margarita, 10 months, who were adopted by high-ranking officials in the Putin regime. 45 of the 46 children stolen from the Kherson Children’s Home remain in Russia.
Bohdan, a 16-year old from Mariupol, saw his best friend killed in front of him by a shell in that city, and was scooped up, taken to Moscow and fostered with a family there. He managed to make phone video contact with his friend Vanya, with investigator Maria, and with a Lithuanian lawyer who tried to help him. He made two attempts to escape, both unsuccessful. He was used, disgracefully, in a Russian propaganda tv ad where he was made to say he wanted to stay in Russia and the Ukrainian army had threatened his relatives. It was made clear to him that when he was 18, he would be conscripted into the army to fight his own countrymen. As the date approached, his lawyer decided to go public, and she and Bohdan recorded a message to President Zelensky asking for him to be brought home. Bohdan’s bravery in publicly telling the truth miraculously achieved his release. After almost 700 days in Russia, he arrived back and was reunited with his friends. More joyful weeping.
Ireland has its own terrible history of family separation and forced adoption from mother and baby homes, which we still have not come to terms with. I wonder if it had been an invading power, rather than an unholy alliance of Church, State and family, carrying out these crimes, would the population have remained so sanguine in the face of effective kidnapping of small children, many never seen by their mothers again?
Ukraine has yet again demonstrated its essential humanity in its dogged pursuit of these children, many of whom are orphaned, like Bohdan. Their lack of parental support does not in any way diminish their importance to those who search for them. They are Ukrainian children, and they belong in their home.
At the time the documentary I have been describing was broadcast, 21,000 children had been kidnapped by Russian forces. Illegal deportation and forced migration are war crimes. Is it too much to hope that some day, Vladimir Putin and his minions will stand in The Hague and be prosecuted for these and so many more war crimes? Viktor, Bohdan, Ilya, Margarita and Nastya deserve no less.
The work done by groups like this, and the wonderful people who protest daily outside the Russian Embassy, is so important in keeping attention on the fascist invasion of Ukraine. If anyone on the left has lingering misplaced affection for Vladimir Putin, although it is really hard to imagine how that could be the case, now is the time to look squarely at stories like these, and to remember that Irish people fought fascism in Spain in 1937, and in Britain in 1940. Let us not abandon our comrades in Ukraine, who are fighting for all of us.
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