Expert Says ROC Complicit In Kidnapping Ukrainian Children
WASHINGTON — The Russian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate is helping the Russian government kidnap, house and falsely indoctrinate Ukrainian children, according to expert testimony before the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
The testimony came from Kyiv, Ukraine, native Vladyslav Havrylov, who this year became a global fellow with the Collaborative on Global Children’s Issues at Georgetown University.
In both oral and written testimony, Havrylov told USCIRF of the ROC-MP’s persecution of Ukrainian children during an April 30th virtual hearing on “The Impact of Freedom of Religion or Belief Violations on Children.”
“One of the most alarming dimensions of the ROC’s role in Russia’s war crimes is its direct involvement in the forcible deportation of Ukrainian children,” Havrylov said in written testimony. “In close cooperation with the Russian government, the ROC has been involved in the forced transfer of Ukrainian children to the territory of the Russian Federation, placing them in church charitable homes, monasteries and recreational camps.”
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Havrylov said, he has focused on Russia’s “forcible transfer, deportation, adoption and reeducation of Ukrainian children.”
The documented 20,570 Ukrainian children Russia has kidnapped could be as many as “50,000 to 100,000 children,” Havrylov said, and only 2,000 have been recovered.
“Not so many people understand how the church can support the war. But the Russian Orthodox Church, they’re working like an institution of the Russian government, not like a church,” Havrylov said in oral testimony. “They try especially to erase identity of Ukrainian children and they try to recreate Ukrainian children to Russian mentality.”
USCIRF received Havrylov’s testimony during the hearing aimed at exploring religious persecution of children in Ukraine, Nigeria, Pakistan, China and other nations, and recommending counter-actions by the U.S. government to protect children.
“Too often, children are the ones who bear the brunt of religious freedom violations,” USCIRF Chair Vicky Hartzler said in opening the hearing. “Perpetrators target them because they are defenseless, knowing that harming girls and boys can destabilize families and entire faith communities.
“By shining a light on these crimes,” Hartzler said, “we can help ensure that no child is ever targeted simply because of their faith.”
In written testimony, Havrylov detailed how the ROC-MP’s Synodal Department for Charity and Social Service coordinated with the Russian Emergencies Ministry to forcibly deport Ukrainians — including children — from occupied territories, framed as an “evacuation.”
The ROC-MP has raised funds to aid in kidnapping children and others from occupied territories, he said, and have been aided by detailed logistical documents including train schedules for transporting deportees and files with information on the distribution of evacuees in temporary accommodation centers.
“By November 2022, the number of ROC dioceses involved in receiving deported Ukrainians had grown from 30 to 58, with church institutions collectively holding deportees across the Russian Federation,” Havrylov said in written testimony. “The fundraising infrastructure established by the ROC collected at least 249.3 million rubles ($3.3 million) for this purpose by November 2022 alone.”
In other testimony on religious persecution of children, USCIRF heard from Gyal Lo, Tibet specialist and educational sociologist, who addressed China’s education policies in Tibet that forbid certain religious education for children; Maliha Zia, director of gender, inclusion and development for the Legal Aid Society of Pakistan, who addressed the persecution of children there and particularly the forced marriage of young teenage girls; and Mohamad Imran Bin Zohor, Rohingya activist and student at University of Washington, who addressed the persecution of Rohingya children and his own personal journey to freedom.
Joining Hartzler at the hearing were USCIRF Vice Chair Assif Mahmoud, as well as commissioners Stephen Schneck, Rachel Laser and Maureen Ferguson.
“We are certainly going to continue to encourage our government to do all it can speak up for these children, and to interact with these government leaders and urge them to allow children to have religious freedom,” Hartzler said, but did not specify recommendations.
This article was originally published at Baptist Press.
Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.