April 17, 2026
Christianity Today: An ‘Underground Railroad’ to Rescue Abducted Ukrainian Kids
Sashko Radchuk hasn’t seen his mother for nearly four years.
One month into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a shell fragment struck the then-12-year-old’s left eye. His family lived in Mariupol—only 35 miles from the Russian border—and was unable to flee as Moscow’s troops advanced.
Radchuk ran inside his home, screaming in pain. His mother sought help from Ukrainian soldiers, who took them to a military hospital set up inside a metal factory. Doctors removed the shell fragment as Russian troops closed in, forcing them to remain at the makeshift medical clinic.
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Two weeks later, Russian soldiers seized the factory and took Radchuk and his mother to a hangar in Bezymenne, a village in the Donetsk region, then to a camp for “filtration”—a brutal interrogation process Russia uses to determine who might pose a threat to Moscow’s war aims. Some Ukrainians undergo torture and forced deportation in these centers.
Radchuk remained in a tent while Russian officials interrogated his mother in a separate location for 90 minutes. Immediately after she returned, the Kremlin’s so-called child services arrived.
“They told me that they were taking me away from my mom, and they didn’t let me say goodbye to her or say anything,” Radchuk told Christianity Today through a translator. “They put me in the car and drove me away.”
Russian officials transferred Radchuk to two different hospitals to monitor his recovery and told him he would eventually be sent to a school or adopted into a Russian family.
The Ukrainian government estimates Russia has taken nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children since the war began. The Kremlin places the number much higher—close to 700,000. Moscow insists these aren’t abductions, but humanitarian evacuations from war zones.
Mounting evidence, however, points to a coordinated effort to strip kids of their Ukrainian identity and move them to different cities, making them difficult to locate. Recent reports suggest some kids could be as far away as North Korea.
“By abducting children and forcing them to abandon their language, faith, and identity, the Kremlin is attempting to erase an entire people,” said Mykola Kuleba, an evangelical and founder of Save Ukraine, a Kyiv-based organization that has rescued 1,124 children.
Most children are placed in Russian reeducation facilities, while others are illegally adopted or sent to military schools. Some Ukrainian children are even sent to the battlefield to fight against their own country, according to the Institute for the Study of War. Kuleba believes the Kremlin’s ultimate goal is to “turn them into future soldiers.” If Russia’s crime goes unanswered, it risks normalizing the weaponization of children, he added.
Ukrainians are urgently advocating for the return of all abducted children, and Christians are deeply engaged at every stage, Kuleba said. “Faith-based networks help identify missing children, support rescue missions, and provide trusted contacts that make this work possible.”