Religious leaders are urging the Trump administration to prioritize thousands of children who have been abducted by Russia during its bloody war in Ukraine.
In a letter to President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio Thursday, an early copy of which was obtained by NOTUS, a group of pastors and faith organizations lambasted Russian leader Vladimir Putin for forcibly transferring Ukrainian children to Russia — and urged the United States to help those children before finalizing any peace deal.
“To this day, the Russian government refuses to provide a list of the children it has taken, in direct violation of international law, while actively working to conceal these war crimes,” the letter states. “No peace deal should be finalized until Ukraine’s children are returned home.”
The letter’s signatures include leaders from the largely politically conservative Southern Baptist Convention — the Christian denomination attended by House Speaker Mike Johnson. Brent Leatherwood, president of the SBC’s public policy arm, signed onto it, as well as Daniel Darling, who leads the cultural engagement center at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
The faith leaders’ message comes as Trump and his team seek a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine and after the administration abruptly halted a humanitarian research project that had been tracking the abducted children. That data was essential in assisting Ukrainian organizations seeking to rescue the children, and it was helping European officials who are prosecuting Russian war crimes. The White House reinstated support for the project last week after lawmakers raised objections to the cost-cutting move.
Darling told NOTUS in an interview that he visited Ukraine this winter and met with people who were working to rescue the Ukrainian children in Russia.
“What really struck me was the strength of the church there,” he said.
“I don’t think most Americans are aware that all these children have been kidnapped,” he said. “Raising awareness of that is important.”
The letter also includes signatures from the evangelical Family Research Council, the National Association of Evangelicals, the refugee assistance organization World Relief, the Multi-Faith Neighbors Network and former deputy United States representative to the United Nations Kelley Currie, among others.
“These children, ranging in age from four months to 17 years old, have been subjected to political re-education, military training, and forced assimilation into Russian society,” the letter reads. “Many have been placed in Russian families, illegally adopted, and even had their birth certificates altered to erase their Ukrainian identities.”
This is “not just a tragedy,” the faith leaders write. “It is a grave moral and legal atrocity.”
“The United States has a duty to uphold these legal and moral principles, not to turn a blind eye in the pursuit of diplomatic expediency,” they continue. “We urge you, as leaders of the free world, to ensure that Ukraine’s children are returned home without preconditions in advance of peace talks.”
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Haley Byrd Wilt is a reporter at NOTUS.