Kremlin Preparing Mass Deportation of Ukrainian Children in Summer 2025

Russia is planning a large-scale deportation of more than 50,000 Ukrainian children from the temporarily occupied Donetsk region under the pretense of summer “vacations” in Russia, according to the National Resistance Center (NRC) of Ukraine, The Gaze reports.

Denis Pushilin, the Kremlin-installed leader of the occupied Donetsk region, has publicly stated that more than 50,000 children will be taken to Russia this summer “for vacation.” But Ukraine’s National Resistance Center warns that the true purpose is far more sinister.

According to the NRC, the real plan involves:

• 13,000 children being transferred to 26 so-called “patronage” regions of the Russian Federation

• 2,500 children being sent to ideological camps like “Artek”, “Orlyonok”, “Smena”, and “Alye Parusa”, which promote “Russkiy Mir” (the “Russian world”) narratives

• Teenagers aged 14 and older being placed in Russian universities as part of the University Changes program

“This ‘vacation’ is not care, but a screen for illegal trafficking,” the National Resistance Center emphasized. “This is forced assimilation, deportation and a war crime that falls under the Rome Statute and the Geneva Convention.”

“This is an attempt to steal the future of Ukraine,” the report stated.

This is not the first time Russia has been accused of targeting Ukrainian children. In February 2025, the NRC reported that more than 4,000 children were transferred to schools in occupied Crimea, and over 800 children were enrolled in kindergartens there.

As The Gaze previously reported, Russia is ramping up efforts to militarize children in the temporarily occupied regions of Ukraine, using local schools as platforms for combat training and ideological indoctrination.