WASHINGTON (BP) — The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) has joined dozens of faith leaders in a letter urging the Trump administration to ensure Russia returns to Ukraine nearly 20,000 abducted children before the U.S. continues peace talks.
“No peace deal should be finalized until Ukraine’s children are returned home,” reads in part the April 3 letter signed by ERLC President Brent Leatherwood and 39 others. “We urge you, as leaders of the free world, to ensure that Ukraine’s children are returned home without precondition in advance of peace talks.
“Ukraine’s children must not be used as bargaining chips in geopolitical negotiations. Their safety, dignity, and right to be reunited with their families must be non-negotiable.”
The letter addressed to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio precedes planned peace talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Washington this week, more than a month after previous talks failed in grand fashion, with Trump dismissing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from the Oval Office.
The faith leaders reference Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “forced transfer” of nearly 20,000 children, ages four months to 17 years, to Russia and Russian-controlled territories. The children, according to the letter and numerous document sources, have been subjected to political reeducation, military training and forced assimilation into Russian society. Others have been illegally adopted and had their birth certificates altered to erase their Ukrainian identities, the letter said, and many have been physically abused and denied adequate food and care.
Rick Morton, an adoptive father of Ukrainian children and vice president of engagement for Lifeline Children’s Services, is among several Lifeline leaders who signed the letter.
“As the father of three children who came to our family from Ukraine, the forced deportation of vulnerable Ukrainian children to Russia hits home in a very personal way and remains one of the most unconscionable elements of the war between Russia and Ukraine,” Morton told Baptist Press (BP). “I am encouraged that President Trump inquired about the status of the more than 19,000 missing Ukrainian children in a recent call with President Zelensky and would hope that Secretary Rubio and General Kellogg would not fail to act on that concern as a chief condition of any peace agreement.
“War is never a justification to harm children.”
Russia has intensified attacks on Ukraine, striking Kyiv on April 4 and Kryvyi Rih on April 6, killing 20, including nine children, and wounding more than 70 in both cities combined, the New York Times reported.
Among signatories to the letter advocating for the return of the abducted children are Daniel Darling, director of the Land Center for Cultural Engagement at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; Katie Fruge, director of the Christian Life Commission of the Baptist General Convention of Texas; Myal Greene, president and CEO of World Relief; Walter Kim, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; and Micah Fries, a former Southern Baptist pastor who now directs the Multi-Faith Neighbors Network.
“Russia has deliberately deported orphans, children with disabilities, and those from low-income families, knowing they are least able to resist,” the leaders said in the letter. “To this day, the Russian government refuses to provide a list of the children it has taken, in direct violation of international law, while actively working to conceal these war crimes.
“The majority of children abducted from Ukraine are still being held in Russia.”
An estimated 1,256 (6%) of the children have been returned, the faith leaders said in the letter, referencing Save Ukraine numbers.
“The Geneva Convention explicitly protects children during wartime, and the deportation or forced transfer of a population is a violation of international law, potentially constituting crimes against humanity,” leaders wrote. “Additionally, international law prohibits children from being traded as hostages, further emphasizing the critical need for the children to be returned prior to negotiations. The United States has a duty to uphold these legal and moral principles, not to turn a blind eye in the pursuit of diplomatic expediency.”
Read the letter here.
(EDITOR’S NOTE — Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.)
