"Eaglets of Russia": Ukrainian children being turned into future Russian soldiers

An investigation by Ukrainska Pravda reveals the alleged systematic transformation of Ukrainian children, evacuated to Russia, into future Russian soldiers. The report highlights the story of Oleh, a seven-year-old orphan from Donetsk, who was placed with the family of a Russian paratrooper. This adoptive father was reportedly part of a unit implicated in the mass killings of civilians in Bucha.

Oleh is among 37 children evacuated from a Donetsk orphanage just before the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Their names are not listed on the official 'Children of War' platform, which tracks over 20,570 deported Ukrainian children. The institution where Oleh resided was only mentioned in Ukrainian media in spring 2026, shortly before charges were announced against those involved in the children's deportation.

The investigation reconstructs the journeys of these children, who traveled hundreds, sometimes thousands, of kilometers. It examines how Russia allegedly alters their identities, erases their ties to Ukraine and their ethnicity, and integrates them into Russian families and residential institutions. The article focuses on children taken from the Teremok children's home in Donetsk, emphasizing the challenge of their return and the slow pace of international response mechanisms. As global efforts to address the situation continue, these stolen Ukrainian children are growing up under foreign flags, with time working against Ukraine's efforts to bring them home.