War has destroyed much of the Ukrainian economy. But one key industry — delivering babies via surrogates — continues amid the epic strife.

This article discusses the practices and policies undertaken by Russia in the War in Ukraine regarding the forcible transfer of Ukrainian children to Russia and suggests some possible meanings of these actions that purposefully make Ukrainian children vulnerable.

Russia has brought some 700,000 children from the conflict zones in Ukraine into Russian territory, Grigory Karasin, head of the international committee in the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament, said late on Sunday.

Like thousands of families in Ukraine, Andrii Mishchenko and Olha Taranova said goodbye at the border. Andrii headed east towards the front lines. Olha headed west with her 11-year-old daughter and elderly father. Now over a year later, the family deals with the strain of separation, the volatility of settling into a new culture and the fear of the worst that could come of the war.

With the help of the nonprofit organisation Save Ukraine, nearly 50 Ukrainian children were reunited with their families this month. Since 8 November last year, the organisation has assisted in returning 95 children. 

A Russian girl who was taken away from her father after she drew an anti-war picture at school has been handed to her estranged mother, authorities say.

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minster Iryna Vereshchuk urged Russians on Tuesday (28 March) not to adopt children she claimed were "stolen in Ukraine" during the war. She said they had been deported to Russia.

More than a year on, Russian President Vladimir Putin's war continues to have a devastating impact across all sectors of Ukrainian society. Among the hardest hit—Ukraine's children.

Thousands of children have been found in the basements of war-torn cities like Mariupol and at orphanages in the Russian-backed separatist territories of Donbas. They include those whose parents were killed by Russian shelling as well as others in institutions or with foster families, known as “children of the state.”

The UN Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said there was evidence of the illegal transfer of hundreds of Ukrainian children to Russia. The Commission's report is categorical that Russia also committed other war crimes in Ukraine.