2025-08-04
10 分钟Welcome to The World in 10.
In an increasingly uncertain world, this is The Times' daily podcast dedicated to global security.
Today with me, Laura Cook and Alex Dibble.
Since the start of the war in Ukraine,
almost 20,000 children have been taken from their families by the Kremlin and,
according to Keith, are being re-educated as Russians.
It's being treated as a war crime,
with allegations that Vladimir Putin is using the children as... poker chips.
It's prompted the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for the Russian president.
Our guest today to explain the challenges being faced by Ukraine to bring these children home is The Times' correspondent in Kyiv,
Maxim Tucker.
Maxim, remind us about this situation and what exactly Russia has done.
I mean, it's one of the most horrifying stories I think we've heard this century,
this stealing of Ukrainian children.
by russian occupiers um in the occupied territory and spiriting them away across the border into russia to separate them from their families and re-educate them as russian patriots they're the kind of next generation of putin supporters and some of these children the older boys particularly being educated as military so the next kind of generation of Putin's army.
You know,
some of these children have managed to be repatriated
because their parents have taken huge trips at great personal risk to go and get their children back from occupied territory or from Russia itself.
Some of them have been returned by negotiated settlements with Qatar acting as an intermediary.
But it's still only 1,399 children who have been returned out of a list of 20,000 Maxim,