LUCERNE, Switzerland — Russia's abduction of Ukrainian children is an attempt to steal the country's future and has left the youngsters with deep psychological scars, campaigners from Ukraine said on Saturday (June 15) as they called for international efforts to bring them home.

Kyiv says about 20,000 children have been taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territory without the consent of family or guardians since the war began, calling the abductions a war crime that meets the UN treaty definition of genocide.

Moscow says it has protected vulnerable children from the war zone.

Speaking on the sidelines of an international summit in Switzerland about the war, Mykola Kuleba, the leader of a Ukrainian charity working to return the children, said "Russia is stealing our future".

"They base their strategy on deception, indoctrination of children, and genocide of the Ukrainian nation," Kuleba, founder and CEO of Save Ukraine, told an event in Lucerne, close to the mountain resort where world leaders were gathering.

Related

---