Why Is Russia Forcibly Removing Ukrainian Children?

An international conference in Canada in late September highlighted the fate of children taken from Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. According to Kyiv, more than 20,000 children have been removed, while the Kremlin rejects these figures and says some children were evacuated from the conflict. The International Criminal Court considers the alleged deportation and transfer of children a war crime and issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Russia’s Children’s Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova in 2023. What happens to these children, and how are NGOs working to locate and reunite them with their families?