Imagine being a child watching in terror as your country is invaded, seeing bombs obliterate your town and wondering if your father fighting on the frontlines is even still alive. Then imagine being kidnapped by that invading army, taken to a hostile country where you are not allowed to speak your own language and told every day that your parents have abandoned you and your country soon will be wiped off the map.

For the approximately 20,000 Ukrainian children kidnapped by Russian forces, this nightmare is their reality. As the United States continues talks with Moscow and Kyiv to end the war in Ukraine, negotiators must prioritize the return of these innocent lives.

While Russia’s kidnapping and deportation of Ukrainian children has been occurring ever since Russia illegally annexed Crimea in May 2014, the numbers of these missing children have grown dramatically following the full-scale invasion in 2022. Notwithstanding Russia’s claims that these are “evacuations” for “humanitarian reasons,” Moscow’s actual intent behind the abductions is as clear as it is sinister — to erase Ukrainian identity.

Oleksandra Matviichuk, a famous Ukrainian human rights lawyer and winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize,

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