More than 1,500 Ukrainian children evacuated overseas after Russia’s 2022 invasion remain elsewhere in Europe, as some resist Kyiv’s efforts to repatriate them. The children were moved from state care on the understanding that the relocation would be temporary, but some say they now feel safer and see better opportunities in the EU.
Ukrainian officials have returned most of the children. In some cases, Italian courts have helped children remain with foster families after those families challenged repatriation orders, citing concerns about safety and the condition of Ukraine’s social welfare and public infrastructure during the war.
A dispute over safety, identity and Ukraine’s future
The children involved are social orphans: young people given up to the state or removed from parents considered unable to care for them. Ukraine views the failure of some to return as a national crisis, particularly alongside the country’s falling birthrate and the loss of children abducted by Russia from occupied territories. Read the context: ‘When I go out, people throw jabs at us’: the Nigerian families fighting for their disabled children.
Kateryna Rashevska, a Ukrainian legal expert on war crimes against children, said prolonged time abroad could weaken some children’s links to the Ukrainian language, culture, history and identity. Ukrainian officials and supporters of repatriation therefore see the issue not only as one of individual placement, but also as a question about the country’s future population and heritage. Related coverage: Europe’s war-readiness questioned as Russia’s hybrid pressure grows.
Key points
- Ukraine suspended international adoptions in May 2022 to prevent trafficking or wrongful adoptions.
- A 15-year-old evacuated to Italy was legally adopted by an Italian family in April, despite parents and siblings in Ukraine seeking his return.
- Some children returned to Ukraine have described institutional or family settings they say did not match the conditions they expected.
What children and carers say happened after evacuation
Denys, who was 15 when he arrived in an Italian Alpine village in March 2022, said he initially felt homesick after leaving Berdiansk with more than 100 other children from his orphanage. He later described school, friendships and integration into Italian life as reasons he no longer wanted to return. He said he feared that returning at 17 could also have exposed him and other boys his age to military mobilisation.
Denys said Italian courts allowed him to stay after Kyiv issued a repatriation order in August 2024. He now works as a waiter in Italy. He also alleged that Ukrainian social workers used intimidating language during meetings with children expected to return, while offering some younger children gifts or making promises about adoption and family reunification that could not be guaranteed.
The experience of children who did return
Evelina, who is now 18, spent almost two years with an Italian foster family before being returned and placed with an adoptive Ukrainian family near the Romanian border. She said the household already cared for several foster children and felt similar to an institution. She also said her phone was confiscated for more than a year, that she did not attend school and that contact with her Italian foster family was repeatedly blocked.
Evelina said she eventually re-established contact with her former foster mother in autumn 2024, but later lost access to WhatsApp and Telegram after sharing concerns about her living conditions. She now says she plans to leave Ukraine and return to the EU. Another child from the same Italian group, Maksym, accepted repatriation but moved to Germany three months after turning 18.
Adoption adds a legal conflict
The dispute intensified after an Italian court allowed the adoption of a 15-year-old evacuated from Ukraine, even though the boy’s parents and two sisters remained in Ukraine and wanted him to return. The case bypassed Ukraine’s suspension of international adoptions, introduced shortly after the invasion to guard against trafficking and wrongful adoptions.
Yuliya Donnichenko, a Ukrainian national in Italy who has helped oversee evacuations and repatriations involving about 100 orphans, said some childless couples appeared to be using the instability to get around strict international adoption rules. Diego Mosca, who supervised children evacuated to Rota d’Imagna, said the repatriation dispute had added to their trauma and that mental-health support for those who returned should take priority over demographic concerns.
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