Europol and partners document 45 Ukrainian children allegedly forcibly transferred

Europol said Monday that it and partner agencies have gathered information on 45 Ukrainian children who were forcibly transferred, the latest concrete step in a cross-border effort to document alleged wartime child transfers tied to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In an announcement published April 20, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation said “40 investigators from 18 countries and several partners collaborated in The Hague in a coordinated open-source investigation effort.” Europol’s newsroom posted the item under the headline, “Europol and partners track down 45 forcibly transferred Ukrainian children.”

The announcement is significant for what it confirms — that investigators identified and documented 45 cases through a multinational investigation using publicly available digital information — and for what it does not. Europol’s public materials say information was gathered and the children were tracked down, but they do not say all 45 were physically located, rescued, safeguarded or returned to Ukraine.

That distinction matters because the case sits within a wider international effort to document alleged forced transfers of Ukrainian children and preserve evidence for humanitarian and legal purposes. The Hague operation was described as an open-source investigation, meaning investigators worked from public online information rather than announcing a field operation or recovery mission.

The Europol announcement also comes a month after Eurojust, the European Union agency that supports judicial cooperation in criminal matters, said its Joint Investigation Team on core international crimes in Ukraine had been extended and would place added focus on the illegal transfer and deportation of Ukrainian children. Eurojust said on March 20 that the team includes national authorities from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine, with Eurojust, Europol and the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court as partners.

The legal framework for those efforts has been in place for more than three years. On March 17, 2023, the International Criminal Court said there were “reasonable grounds to believe” suspects in the Ukraine case bore responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation or transfer of population in connection with Ukrainian children. ICC Prosecutor Karim A. A. Khan said at the time there were “reasonable grounds to believe that each suspect bears responsibility for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population.”

The 45 cases cited by Europol are a small, specific subset of a much larger issue. European and Ukrainian official figures previously cited by international institutions have put the number of Ukrainian children allegedly forcibly transferred or deported since the start of the full-scale invasion at roughly 19,000 to 20,000 or more.

The issue has also drawn broad diplomatic attention. In December 2025, the U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution demanding that Russia immediately and unconditionally return all Ukrainian children who had been forcibly transferred or deported. The measure passed with 91 votes in favor, 12 against and 57 abstentions.