By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
MOSCOW/KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Pope Francis expressed concern Wednesday that “war is a human defeat” after new evidence emerged that the Russia-Ukraine war impacted those whose lives have just begun. Investigators say Ukrainian children were stripped of their Ukrainian identity and placed with Russian families.
As fighting intensifies ahead of possible peace negotiations, a U.S. State Department-backed investigation has identified 314 Ukrainian children taken to Russia in the early months of the war in Ukraine.
Researchers say it was part of a systematic, Kremlin-funded program to “Russify” them. Yale’s School of Public Health, which conducted the research, said Russian presidential aircraft and funds were used in a program that took children from occupied Ukrainian territories.
They were allegedly stripped of their Ukrainian identity and placed with Russian families.
In March 2023, the international criminal court issued arrest warrants for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and his child rights’ commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova, for the alleged war crime of deportation of Ukrainian children.
However, in a previous interview, Lvova-Balova denied wrongdoing. “They thanked our soldiers for saving, helping, and not abandoning them. For getting them out of the airstrikes,” she claimed.
“Since when do words of gratitude constitute propaganda? Those are ordinary, sincere human emotions. No one has been forced to take [Russian citizenship, as Ukraine often claims,” Lvova-Balova wondered in an interview with the Vice news outlet.
Yet her words have done little to convince those searching for their children of Ukraine, which insisted on Tuesday that membership of the NATO military alliance NATO was the only “real guarantee” for its security.
NATO UMBRELLA
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has even suggested putting territories he controls under the NATO umbrella while a diplomatic solution could be found for Russian-occupied regions.
However, foreign ministers from the alliance sidestepped Kyiv’s push for an invitation at their meeting ahead of Donald J. Trump’s return to the U.S. presidency.
Yet, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said they would continue providing Kyiv with military aid as, in his words, peace talks have to be done from a position of strength. “i would say more military aid and less discussions on what a peace process could look like,” he argued.
“You and I will – are smart enough to think of many ways how to deal with that, but we have to bring Ukraine to that position that it can start, and it can only start when they are in a position of strength,” Rutte stressed.
There is concern among critics that this approach will mean more bloodshed in a war that has already killed and injured hundreds of thousands of people. “Pray for peace,” Pope Francis said.
Yet, as the near three-year-long war continues, many Ukrainian children will soon face another Christmas without their biological parents.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
Senior European intelligence officials see little chance of ending Russia’s war in Ukraine this year, despite President Donald J. Trump’s claim that U.S.-brokered negotiations have brought a peace deal “reasonably close.”
British police raided two properties linked to former Prince Andrew on Thursday and detained the 66-year-old royal on suspicion of misconduct in public office, escalating scrutiny over his past association with the late U.S. financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Christians in Pakistan’s Punjab province were searching Thursday for an abducted minor girl, days after the provincial governor signed legislation raising the legal marriage age to 18 and criminalizing child marriage as a non-bailable offense.
The U.S. trade deficit edged slightly lower in 2025 but remained the third-largest on record, underscoring the scale of America’s global trade imbalance even amid sweeping tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump.
The United Kingdom will not allow the Pentagon to use British-controlled bases to launch potential military strikes against Iran, according to a report by The Times of London.
President Donald Trump on Thursday unveiled what he called a historic new diplomatic framework — the “Board of Peace” — during an inaugural meeting at the U.S. Institute of Peace, announcing billions in pledges for Gaza reconstruction and signaling that a major decision on Iran could come within days.
President Donald Trump is weighing an initial, limited military strike on Iran aimed at forcing Tehran to meet U.S. demands for a comprehensive nuclear agreement, the Wall Street Journal reported.