Klobuchar, Grassley Legislation to Bolster Support for Identifying and Returning Kidnapped Ukrainian Children Passes Senate

Russia has kidnapped more than 19,000 Ukrainian children - attempting to erase their cultural identity and heritage

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) announced that their bipartisan Abducted Ukrainian Children Recovery and Accountability Act passed the Senate as part of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026. This legislation now goes to the House of Representatives for a vote.

The Abducted Ukrainian Children Recovery and Accountability Act would increase support for Ukraine's efforts to investigate and track the more than 19,000 Ukrainian children who have been abducted during Putin's brutal invasion, assist with the rehabilitation and reintegration of children who are returned, and provide justice and accountability for perpetrators of these abductions.

"The mass kidnapping of Ukrainian children by Russia is an atrocity. We cannot accept a world where children are abducted during wartime and used as a form of hostage-taking for negotiations. Our bipartisan legislation will provide the necessary support to track them and hold the perpetrators accountable," said Klobuchar.

"After he started the largest war in Europe since World War II, Putin kidnapped thousands of Ukrainian children to brainwash and Russify them, trying to destroy their cultural identity and heritage. These children should be returned home as soon as possible. I'm glad to see our measure included in the annual defense bill to support critical tools to identify and track the location of these children and reintegrate them into their homeland. We're also helping hold perpetrators accountable for their atrocities to ensure justice is served," said Grassley.

This legislation follows a bipartisan resolution that Klobuchar and Grassley led in May condemning Russia's abduction and forcible transfer of Ukrainian children and demanding their return before reaching a final peace agreement. The full text of the resolution here.

This legislation is complementary to the Designating the Russian Federation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism Act, which was introduced in September by Klobuchar and Senators Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Katie Britt (R-AL) to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism under U.S. law if it fails to return the more than 19,000 Ukrainian children that have been kidnapped during the course of the war.

In March, Klobuchar and Grassley were joined by Senator Durbin in leading a bipartisan letter calling for the State Department to continue supporting efforts to investigate Russia's abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children.

To date, Ukrainian authorities have received at least 19,546 confirmed reports of unlawful deportations and forced transfers of Ukrainian children to Russia, Belarus or Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory. The abductions aim to erase the children's Ukrainian names, language, and identity. As of October 9, Ukraine and its partners have only managed to return about 1,600 abducted children.

The State Department's 2024 Trafficking in Persons Report found Russia recruits or uses child soldiers, has a state-sponsored policy or pattern of human trafficking, and is among the worst hubs for human trafficking in the world.

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