April 17, 2026
Newsmax: Never Forget, Putin's War Is on Ukraine's Children Also by Penny Nance
Without fanfare over the past six months, first lady Melania Trump has engaged in quiet diplomacy to free abducted Ukrainian children from Russia.
Four years ago, when Russia occupied the Ukrainian city of Kherson, the nurses of a local orphanage took children to a local Baptist church's basement to hide them from bombing and Russian soldiers.
Weeks later, their location had been revealed.
At least 46 children, all under the age of five, were taken by Russian soldiers to Crimea and placed for adoption into Russian families, including a girl adopted by Sergey Mironov, a former chairman of the upper chamber of the Russian parliament and a Putin buddy.
On Feb. 12, three of these children from Kherson were returned to their families in Ukraine thanks to the efforts of Mrs. Trump.
As an anti-abortion leader and strong advocate for families, this writer is thrilled.
The Lord loves children and calls us to defend them. As Psalm 82:4 proclaims, "Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked."
Mrs. Trump took on what seemed impossible: she rescued Ukrainian children from Russian President Vladimir Putin's hands. Over the past six months, 20 Ukrainian children have been brought home because of her efforts.
While the right thing to do for Ukraine's stolen children is obvious, Putin has blocked progress. The Russian leader has tried to exploit the situation to stop legislation in Congress that would enable more Ukrainian children to be rescued, spread disinformation, and muddied the waters around the whole situation.
Allegations have been made that Ukraine is doing the same thing.
Has Ukraine taken Russian children? Decidedly not.
But Putin is a master at creating false equivalencies.
Ukraine does not control any part of Russia's territory and has not engaged in the displacement or even the evacuation of Russian children.
What happened is this:
Russia has returned not only abducted children, but also one who happened to be on the other side of the border. A Ukrainian child was living with his mother and grandparents in Russia, but after his mother died, the child wanted to reconnect with his uncle in Ukraine.
Moscow puts children who happened to be on a different side of the border in the same category and those who Russian soldiers brutally stole from their families, sowing confusion and blurring the lines between war circumstances and an actual crime.
We need to see through the Kremlin's distortions and focus on freeing more Ukrainian children. More than 19,000 more children are waiting for their rescue.
While in Russian captivity, Ukrainian children are subjected to illegal adoption into Russian families, abuse, aggressive indoctrination, and militarization. According to a UN Human Rights Report, "The Russian armed forces directed widespread violence against civilians, including children."
Consider the case of 16-year-old Sofia, a Ukrainian girl who was taken to a Russian military camp.
Her parents were told that she would be taken to a peaceful seaside camp.
Instead, Sofia spent weeks living in the barracks, digging trenches, assembling, and shooting the weapons, and going through the military exercises that were simulated to recreate real war conditions.