“Systematic Evil”: Ukraine announced real data on children killed and abducted by Russia (2022–2025)

Hundreds of Ukrainian children have died. Russia must answer for this.

“I write not only as a public servant but as a witness to systematic evil. Russia’s war against Ukraine is a war against children, a calculated and ruthless attack on the most vulnerable.“

November 4, 2025, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, Andriy Yermak, published a column in the American publication The Washington Examiner about Russia’s crimes against Ukrainian children. On the same day, Ukrainian and foreign media disseminated key data and quotes.

This text is not emotion. It is evidence.
The numbers spoken by Yermak are not war statistics but a list of destroyed lives.

“The exact number of victims in the occupied territories remains unknown. Russia holds countless Ukrainian children there. They are brainwashed, prepared for war, and turned into tools in the hands of the Russian Empire. Thousands of children have been taken to Russia to erase their Ukrainian identity. This is genocide, not collateral damage. It is a deliberate strategy to destroy the heart and soul of a nation.

My fellow Ukrainians are genuinely encouraged that Americans understand the vile nature of the regime of Russian President Vladimir Putin.“

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, from February 24, 2022, to the present:

• 660+ children killed
• 2000+ injured
• 19,000+ illegally taken

“This is not an accident but a deliberate crime and part of the Kremlin’s systemic policy to destroy the Ukrainian nation,” Yermak stated.

When a country talks about children, it talks about the future. And Ukraine talks about the future as if holding its fragments in its hands.

Systematic evil, not “tragic episodes”

Yermak’s column read not as a political text but as a crime protocol.

Russia is not just destroying Ukrainian cities.
It takes children, changes their names, breaks their language and memory.

“Russia holds countless Ukrainian children. They are brainwashed, prepared for war, turned into an instrument of the empire.”

And this is not a figure of speech.
This is the reason why the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin and Lvova-Belova.

For the first time since World War II, a country’s leader received an international warrant for child abduction.

Stories that cannot be closed

Statistics come alive when names are spoken (The Washington Examiner).

• Angelina, 2 years old. August 2025. Russian missile. Life ends as if someone turned it off.

“Every returned child is a saved future.”

• Philip, 17 years old, Mariupol. Stolen, “adopted” by a Russian official. He was “re-educated” because he sang Ukrainian songs.
• Vlad from Kherson. A teenager locked up for trying to remove the occupiers’ flag.
• The Lesnichenko brothers, 4 and 6 years old. Killed along with their parents by a Russian drone.

“This is a hunt for children. And the world must stop it.”

Destroyed churches, killed priests — the backdrop of the same crime

Yermak noted: it’s not just about children.

• 704 destroyed religious objects
• 74 killed clergymen
• systematic torture of civilians and military

“Russia destroyed hundreds of churches, killed priests, tortured civilians and military. But it is the treatment of children that is the most terrible testimony of its moral collapse.”

The US made a move that changes the rules

The US Senate is advancing a law:
if Russia does not return the stolen children, it may be recognized as a state sponsor of terrorism.

This is not a diplomatic gesture.
This is a recognition of the nature of what is happening.

“The world has no right to look away. We must hold Russia accountable.”

A special detail: Yermak expressed gratitude to the First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump.

“Special thanks to the First Lady of the United States, Melania Trump, for her personal attention to the return of Ukrainian children.”

When the First Lady intervenes, it signals to the system that a moral issue has become political.

Why Israel hears this particularly acutely

Here in Israel, it is read differently.
Because here the words “return the children” were heard before many countries even knew the word “missile”.

Ukrainian families in Haifa, Tel Aviv, Ashdod, Jerusalem understand:
the return of a child is not politics, it is the breath of a family.

Facts recorded as evidence

Not emotions — facts.
Not a narrative — evidence.

What Ukraine demands

Simply:

1. Return the children.
2. Call criminals — criminals.
3. Do not let the world get tired.

“We are not asking for sympathy. We are asking for justice.”

Memory is also a weapon

War becomes genocide where the enemy goes after children.
And the world must respond where the enemy considers children “rewritable material”.

NANews — News of Israel. We will not let silence become an excuse.