Aiding the abduction of Ukrainian children must come with consequences

“They do not like the light of day. They’re like vampires,” former U.S. War Crimes Ambassador David Crane said about private corporations and their leaders that facilitate war crimes. At a hearing of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission in the U.S. Capitol last month, witnesses and members of Congress considered that Russian President Vladimir Putin is unlikely to face the consequences from international legal bodies for crimes against humanity, including Russia’s abduction of Ukrainian children. But, as Crane and other witnesses pointed out, it’s time for lower-level government officials and executives at Russian companies that aid and abet child abductions to face consequences from the United States and other opposing countries. The hearing came on the same day that Yale School of Public Health’s Humanitarian Research Lab released its latest study, finding that Russian energy giants Rosneft and Gazprom contributed to the deportation, indoctrination and militarization of Ukrainian children. According to the report, the two companies, along with their subsidiaries and trade unions, “underwrote and facilitated the transport” of approximately 2,158 children from Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory to at least six summer camps inside Russia and Russian-occupied Ukraine, three of which were owned by Gazprom subsidiaries. Russia’s oil and gas sector is projected to account for over 22 percent of Russia’s federal budget in 2026 and is essential to sustaining Russia’s ongoing invasion. Rosneft and Gazprom are the sector’s largest companies, led by some of Putin’s closest allies. The allegations implicate the two companies in Russia’s well-documented crime of abducting Ukrainian children. International law considers the transfer of children from an occupied territory to the territory of the occupying power to be a war crime, regardless of motive. Ukraine estimates that nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children have been abducted. Throughout the Russian-occupied territories, Ukrainian schoolchildren are subjected to pro-Russian “patriotic education initiatives” — part of Putin’s goal of erasing Ukrainian identity through “Russification.” In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Putin and Russia’s Commissioner for Children’s Rights Maria Lvova-Belova, holding them “allegedly responsible for the war crime of unlawful deportation of population (children)” and the “unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation.” But although Article 27 of the Rome Statute establishing the court does not exempt heads of state from prosecution, Russia is not a signatory to the statute. Moscow obviously has no intention of handing over Putin, Lvova-Belova or any other Russian official. Another approach is needed to pressure those individuals and entities involved in trafficking Ukrainian children into Russia. Out of 44 entities accused in Yale’s report that facilitated the transfer of children, a shocking 80 percent have not been sanctioned by the United States or Europe. The report listed camps, oil and gas subsidiaries, trade unions and high-level company directors. “Corporations are a lurking shadow behind atrocities,” Crane said, drawing on his experience prosecuting war crimes in West Africa, adding, “there’s nothing wrong with naming and shaming. It’s bad press for any corporation to be named in something like this.” In addition to naming and shaming, the U.S. and European governments should initiate a campaign to target senior executives one or two levels below the billionaire oligarchs, Russians who have operational control of subsidiary businesses or organizations involved in Russia’s crimes against Ukrainian children. This cohort may not have yachts like the oligarchs, but they retain access to the West. In 2025, 49 percent of Russian foreign real estate transactions were in Europe. Russians are obtaining residence permits, the “ability to travel within the Schengen Area, open accounts in the [European Union], and manage financial resources,” according to data from the international real estate consulting firm, Intermark Global. The U.S. saw a 78.5 percent year-on-year surge in Russian demand for real estate in the first half of 2025. Travel to the West, especially Western Europe, has also rebounded since the early days of the war. The U.S. Treasury and State departments must target Russia’s executive class, including those listed in Yale’s report, with targeted sanctions, asset freezes and travel bans for facilitating child abductions to disincentivize their participation in the scheme. Congress and the administration should also look to identify persons and entities engaged in this human trafficking effort and sanction them under the Global Magnitsky Act, which allows for asset freezes and visa bans for those found to be involved in human rights abuses and corruption. Creating consequences for their participation in Russia’s atrocities may do more to curtail their actions than targeting Russia’s leadership and flagship corporations. Dmitriy Shapiro is a research analyst and editor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.