Anastasiia, now 19, was 15 when she fled her foster home in Kherson during the early days of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. Stopped at a checkpoint, she said soldiers told her she was "dangerous to their state". She was then enrolled in a college where she says she was exposed to Russian re-education. Russia's children's rights commissioner, Maria Lvova Belova, even toured the school and offered study opportunities in Russia or the chance to join the country's young army cadets.
Anastasiia says she was shunted between Russian foster families in occupied Ukraine. At the second home, she says she was physically harmed. "They beat me there. They humiliated me and told me my mother wouldn't take me back from occupied territory," she said. The ABC has chosen not to publish her full name to protect her identity.
An estimated 1.6 million Ukrainian children are living under occupation, where Russian-installed authorities have rolled out indoctrination programs and military training starting as young as kindergarten, according to Kateryna Rashevska, a prominent Ukrainian human rights lawyer gathering evidence of war crimes. She said that families have been persecuted when children refuse to participate. "The fact that we have hundreds or even thousands of the same cases in occupation, we will be able to prove a crime against humanity," she said.
Ms Rashevska said the scale and organised nature of Moscow's efforts to eradicate Ukrainian culture could amount to genocide. "The main goal is to destroy Ukraine as a sovereign state and to subjugate everything remaining from the Ukrainian nation to Russian influence and control," she said.
Ukraine's human rights ombudsman, Dmytro Lubinets, said from witness testimony that life under occupation is repressive, with children forced to obtain Russian documents. "Every Ukrainian child must identify themselves as the Russians. And everyone who is against this position, according to Russian position, must be killed, including Ukrainian children," he said.
The United Nations concluded in 2025 that Russia is committing crimes against humanity in occupied regions of Ukraine in a widespread and systematic manner against the civilian population. The International Criminal Court has already issued arrest warrants for President Vladimir Putin and Ms Lvova Belova over the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children.
Foster mother Ludmilla, who still has family under occupation, fled when her teenage foster sons received pre-conscription letters at school. "We dropped everything and left. We decided to leave so that they wouldn't take the children," she said.
The ABC report does not include any response from Russian authorities to these specific allegations.