Children should never be weapons of war. Yet, in the 21st century, before the eyes of the entire world, Russia is systematically abducting Ukrainian children, erasing their identities, and turning them into little Russians, while the West collectively shrugs. And now, to make the irony even greater, Elon Musk has decided to financially cut off those working to bring them home.
This is not just another decision by a billionaire. This is not one of his whims, like renaming Twitter or pumping Dogecoin. This is complicity in one of the most insidious war crimes of our time – the systematic theft of children, an act that amounts to nothing less than genocide.
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More than 19,500 Ukrainian children have disappeared into Russia. Some were taken from orphanages and hospitals; others were kidnapped from occupied territories. All have undergone the same process – forced name changes, new passports, and indoctrination into the “Russian world.” They are taught to forget the Ukrainian language. To despise the country they came from. To never learn the truth about their origins.
The children who were in orphanages or whose parents were killed in the war are the easiest prey.
This is not a conspiracy theory or propaganda. There are documented testimonies from children who managed to escape. Twelve-year-old Makar, one of the few lucky ones who was returned to Ukraine, described how Russians at a so-called “rehabilitation center” told him his Ukrainian parents had abandoned him and that he would now finally have a “real family” – a Russian family. Imagine the psychological trauma of a child made to believe their parents had discarded them while being given a new identity, a new language, and a new life they never wanted.
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And what about the children who were in orphanages or whose parents were killed in the war? They are the easiest prey. In Russian government records, these children do not exist as Ukrainians. They are now “rescued orphans” meant to be adopted by Russian families and raised as small patriots of the new empire. Their past has been erased. Their names changed. Their future sealed. This is not assimilation – it is cultural genocide.
But this is nothing new. During World War II, the Nazis did the same to Polish and Czech children – taking them from their homes and placing them with German families to “civilize” them. Only a small fraction of those children were ever found and returned. What Russia is doing to Ukrainians today is no less criminal.
While humanitarian organizations, led by Save Ukraine, are trying to locate and bring back the stolen children, someone is now preventing them – Elon Musk. The visionary, the man who loves to play Messiah, has decided to cut funding for the team working to find and return abducted Ukrainian children.
His reason? Cost-cutting? Financial difficulties? Hardly. Musk’s wealth is measured in hundreds of billions of dollars. Money is not the issue. This is something else.
This is the same Musk who blocked Ukraine from using Starlink during critical military operations, directly aiding Russian forces. Now, he is going a step further – actively hindering the rescue of stolen children. Directly or indirectly, his decision aids Putin’s machinery of genocide.
You don’t need to bomb cities to erase a nation from the map – you just need to steal its children and reshape them into something else.
War is not just a battle for territory – it is a battle for identity. Putin does not just want Ukraine; he wants Ukrainians to cease to exist. His strategy is not just military – it is demographic, cultural, and psychological. Stealing children is the most direct way to erase the future of a nation.
When you take away a child’s name, language, family, and homeland, they stop being who they were. You don’t need to bomb cities to erase a nation from the map – you just need to steal its children and reshape them into something else.
Someone should show Musk’s own children the footage of boys and girls being taken into the unknown by Russia. Let them imagine what it would be like if someone erased their names, their past, their parents. Would he remain silent then? Would he still be cutting costs at their expense?
Does the world not see this? Does the world not understand? How will history remember this?
Let’s not be naïve. The world has turned a blind eye to such crimes before. When the Nazis took Jewish children to concentration camps, many pretended not to see. The same happened during the Greek Civil War (1946–1949), when thousands of Greek children were forcibly deported to communist Eastern European countries to be re-educated and trained for ideological warfare.
And Musk? His name now stands alongside those who enabled and covered up some of the greatest crimes of the modern era.
If we have learned anything, it is that crimes are stopped through strong condemnation and action. Ukraine is using every diplomatic and legal mechanism to bring the children back, but that is not enough. We need international mobilization.
The world must say no. There must be pressure on Russia, an end to the policy of “expressing concern,” and a move toward concrete sanctions and actions. Every person involved in this crime must be identified – from Russian politicians to the families who have “adopted” these children. No one should escape justice.
And Musk? His decision cannot go without consequences. If capitalism understands one thing, it is public pressure and boycotts. Every Tesla, SpaceX, and social media user should know where their money is going. Everyone who admires his “visionary” leadership should realize that vision without morality leads to disaster.
Those who remain silent today will be counted among those who allowed this crime to happen. But those who speak out today can become part of a history that did not turn its back on innocent children.
Musk has chosen his side. Now it’s our turn.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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