Four families, four stories of separation. The authors of ‘Stolen Youth,’ a new book from Meduza about how Russia abducted thousands of Ukrainian children, explain why they wrote it.

Journalists Nina Nazarova and Sviatoslav Khomenko have published 'Stolen Youth,' a book tracing four families' experiences after their children were taken into Russia during the invasion, sometimes under the pretense of school trips or safety camps, after which parents found they could not get them back.

The authors describe Russian officials speaking with apparent pride about placing Ukrainian children with new families and issuing them new passports, a program the International Criminal Court ruled in 2023 constitutes a war crime, with arrest warrants later issued for Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova.

The book draws on interviews with affected families, officials' own public statements, and new school curricula imposed in occupied territories, arguing that whatever the war's outcome, thousands of children remain in Russia with altered identities and that the consequences will last decades.

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