In 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted Russian President Vladimir Putin for the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children. In November 2025, formerly abducted children shared harrowing stories of detention, indoctrination and forced separation in Russian-controlled areas at an event in Rome, where Ukrainian officials pressed for international support to ensure their safe return.  

Even though these testimonies raised concerns on an international level, social media users continued to refute the circumstances of child deportation and attempted to justify Russia’s alleged actions. An ISD Investigation has found more than 150,000 X posts published between 1 September 2024 and 10 August 2025 that sought to justify Russia’s actions in relation to child deportations. More than 100,000 of these posts repeated unproven allegations, for example that the Ukrainian government is engaged in child trafficking or organ harvesting.  

This online discourse has been energised by recent news events. The release of a new batch of Jeffrey Epstein–related documents on 2 February 2026 by the US Department of Justice has sparked a fresh wave of claims that Putin was ‘saving Ukrainian children’, this time from an Epstein-linked pedophile network. Over 15,000 posts making this allegation appeared on X within just 48 hours of the latest ‘Epstein files’ being published. 

Key findings 

• ISD analysed more than 150,000 English-language X posts that referred to the deportation, evacuation and/or trafficking of Ukrainian children posted between 1 September 2024 and 10 August 2025. The most popular narrative, found in over 70 percent of these posts, was that Ukraine is a “global hub for child trafficking,” which appeared in more than two-thirds of posts.  

• High-profile international figures amplified unsubstantiated claims accusing Ukrainian officials of child trafficking. These figures include former British Member of Parliament (MP) Andrew Bridgen, far-right activist Tommy Robinson and both former and current members of the European Parliament (MEPs).  

• Links to two heavily biased documentaries were mentioned almost 900 times in the dataset. One was produced by sanctioned Russian state media outlet RT; the other was produced by Urban Scoop (a UK media platform founded by Robinson) and received more than 53,000 YouTube views. 

• These findings suggest an effort to downplay or refute Russia’s illegal deportation of Ukrainian children by shifting attention toward unsubstantiated claims that the Ukrainian state itself is involved in child trafficking. 

• The recent release of more than three million ‘Epstein files’ by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) has sparked new claims that Russia was allegedly ‘saving Ukrainian children’ from an Epstein-linked paedophile network. ISD identified over 15,000 posts making this claim, published within just 48 hours of the documents’ release. 

Background  

In March 2023, the International Criminal Court (ICC) indicted Russian President Vladimir Putin for the “unlawful deportation of children” and “unlawful transfer of children from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation”. According to Ukrainian figures, Russia has deported more than 19,500 children from Ukraine since the start of its full-scale invasion in 2022.  

Russian officials have repeatedly justified the deportations of Ukrainian children by claiming they had been “saved from the Ukrainian army,” as well as unproven allegations that Ukraine commits crimes such as organ harvesting and child trafficking. Meanwhile, formerly abducted children have testified that in fact they were detained, subjected to indoctrination, and in some cases tortured. It has also been reported that in August 2025, Russian-installed authorities in the occupied Luhansk region of Ukraine launched an online ‘catalogue’ of Ukrainian children (including nearly 300 alleged orphans), offering them for coerced adoption. 

This issue has captured attention among a range of public figures in the US. For example, in October 2025, US First Lady Melania Trump publicly stated that she had helped secure the return of at least eight deported Ukrainian children and used her position to advocate on their behalf, delivering a letter to Russian President Putin during his meeting in Alaska with President Trump. A month later, US Senator Amy Klobuchar met with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican alongside a delegation of Ukrainian mothers, wives and teenagers who had been forcibly taken to Russia during the war. Klobuchar emphasised that the abduction of children during wartime is unacceptable, praised the Pope as a moral force for peace and called for continued US support for Ukraine. 

The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee has also advanced legislation to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism in response to the alleged kidnapping of thousands of Ukrainian children. The potential Designating the Russian Federation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism Act would direct the US State Department to apply this label if Ukrainian children who have allegedly been kidnapped, deported or displaced since February 2022 were not reunited with their families in Ukraine.  

Methodology   

ISD analysed posts on X (formerly Twitter) which discussed Russia’s deportation of Ukrainian children. Using social media monitoring tool Brandwatch, analysts collected posts made between 1 September 2024 and 10 August 2025 that referenced Ukraine, children and terms such as “deportation,” “evacuation” and “trafficking”. 

The process was refined to remove as many unrelated examples as possible. For instance, terms linked to fact-checking, counter-disinformation efforts and media reporting were excluded from the search to avoid capturing material that explicitly debunked or criticised the Kremlin’s actions and narratives. In total, 150,788 English-language posts on X were identified, analysed and coded by researchers.   

These posts collectively contribute to and build upon a narrative that obscures and/or denies Russia’s illegal deportation of Ukrainian children by portraying Russia as the protector of Ukrainian children. The posts also redirect attention toward allegations of child trafficking on behalf of the Ukrainian government. 

A second dataset was collected between 2 and 3 February 2026, following the release of a new batch of the ‘Epstein files’. This dataset was retrieved by searching for posts that mentioned Ukrainian children, Epstein and claims that Russia or Putin were saving Ukrainian children. 

Narrative 1: Ukraine is a global hub for child trafficking 

The most prominent narrative on X during this timeframe positioned Ukraine as a global hub for child trafficking. This claim was found in more than 106,000 of the 150,000 total posts. The narrative often appeared alongside a broader ecosystem of conspiracy theories alleging Ukraine’s involvement in organ harvesting, international paedophile networks and money–laundering schemes. These posts were also often connected to narratives about US-funded ‘biolabs’ in the country. The most prominent peak in activity appeared in the last weeks of February 2025 and the first week of March 2025, corresponding with the three–year anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

Figure 1. Spikes in ‘trafficking narrative’ activity on X, with major peaks in the last weeks of February 2025. 

Many of the posts with the most engagement contained emotionally charged video content and mentions of Western political figures. One of the most popular posts came from a self-described “conspiracy theorist” on X with over 800,000 followers. The post falsely claimed that a US diplomat had “confirmed” that Ukraine was operating as a child trafficking hub, and included a video clip of retired US Lieutenant General Michael Flynn repeating the narrative. Flynn previously accepted $45,000 in 2015 from RT, a Kremlin-controlled and sanctioned entity, and in 2017 he was found guilty of lying under oath about his ties to the Russian ambassador in the US. The false claim was shared more than 16,000 times. 

A post in the dataset made by former British MP Andrew Bridgen falsely claimed to have uncovered a child trafficking route from Ukraine to the UK, with one of his X posts reaching almost a million views. No credible evidence supports the existence of such a route. Since 2023, similar claims have been repeatedly shared by a network of websites and social media accounts linked to the Russian information operation known as CopyCop/Storm-1516, including allegations that the foundation associated with Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska is involved in international child trafficking.   

Among the accounts promoting these claims is the Foundation to Battle Injustice (R-FBI), which was sanctioned by the EU in July 2025 as an entity “responsible for Russia’s destabilising actions abroad, including through Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI)”. Researchers previously documented that R-FBI was founded by the late head of the Wagner mercenary group Yevgeny Prigozhin. R-FBI often seeks to discredit Ukrainian leadership via accusations of corruption and organised crime. For example, it published numerous pieces accusing Ukraine of trafficking children to paedophile rings in the UK.  

At the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, international organisations warned that rapid and large-scale displacement of vulnerable groups could increase the risk of exploitation by opportunistic traffickers. However, allegations of state-facilitated child trafficking have no evidentiary basis. These claims are amplified through the combination of visual ‘evidence’ and supposedly authoritative sources.  

This trafficking narrative was propagated through two documentaries, which were referenced in 882 of the X posts in the dataset:   

• One documentary, The Child Traders, was produced by Urban Scoop, a UK-based media collective founded by Tommy Robinson in collaboration with UkrLeaks, a pro-Kremlin Telegram network led by a former Ukrainian intelligence officer, 

• The second, Tanks for Kidneys, was produced by RT (which is sanctioned in the EU and UK). ISD has previously identified the use of documentaries by RT to circumvent sanctions.  

British far-right figure Tommy Robinson uploaded The Child Traders to his accounts on X (1.8M followers) and YouTube (currently 593,000 subscribers) on 8 August 2025. In an accompanying post on X, Robinson falsely alleged that Ukraine’s Security Services (SBU), Britain’s foreign intelligence service MI6, and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office were complicit in the child trafficking scheme. In January 2026, the documentary was removed from Tommy Robinson’s YouTube channel after having garnered more than 53,000 views, along with other videos, but it remains available on his X account where it has accumulated 124,800 views.  

Figure 2. Tommy Robinson’s X post promoting the Urban Scoop documentary (now removed), which alleges Ukrainian and British officials are involved in child trafficking. 

 

 Figure 3. Tommy Robinson posted the documentary on his YouTube channel.  

Former MP Andrew Bridgen, one of three interviewees in the documentary, referred to The Child Traders as “our documentary” on X. In his clips, Bridgen calls for an investigation into an alleged plot to traffic Ukrainian children to the UK, which allegedly involves high-ranking Ukrainian and British officials alongside prominent international humanitarian organisations such as Save the Children. Bridgen said he transferred the evidence to support these claims to British law enforcement but “they failed to act” and instead he became “a victim of persecution”. Bridgen has been involved in several unrelated legal controversies in the UK in recent years. 

Figure 4. X post promoting the documentary by Andrew Bridgen, a former conservative British MP. 

Another source interviewed for the documentary was Vasiliy Prozorov, the former Ukrainian intelligence officer behind UkrLeaks: a network that regularly publishes false allegations aimed at discrediting Ukraine. Prozorov defected to Russia in 2017 and publicly admitted to espionage on behalf of the Kremlin.  

Narrative 2: Russia claims it is protecting Ukrainian children  

Another narrative advanced by Kremlin-linked actors to justify the deportation of Ukrainian children is that their displacement resulted from Russia’s efforts to save, evacuate or rescue them. This narrative appeared in 5,159 posts, many of which praised Russian soldiers for their bravery. 

ISD analysts observed a spike in posts questioning the scale of Russia’s deportation of Ukrainian children during the week of 2 June 2025. This increase coincided with peace talks in Istanbul, where the Ukrainian delegation presented a list of 339 deported children for immediate return. In response, Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation, dismissed the allegations of child deportation and accused Ukraine of “putting on a show for old European ladies”.   

Pro-Kremlin actors on X sought to undermine Ukraine by questioning why only 339 children were named given that Kyiv officially reported 19,500 deportations. Ukrainian officials clarified that the list did not include all deported children and was a pragmatic first step to secure a manageable return and test Russia’s cooperation. Accounts pushing this narrative systematically ignored this nuance. 

 

Figure 5. X posts arguing Russia was taking Ukrainian children to safety instead of abducting them. 

Russian officials have also claimed that these actions were intended to “save” children. Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s Presidential Commissioner for Children’s Rights, has repeatedly framed these deportations as humanitarian missions to “save” children from combat zones. However, “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory” are in direct contravention of Article 49 of the Geneva Conventions. In 2023, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Lvova-Belova alongside President Putin for the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children. 

A similar claim was made by Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative in Vienna. He framed the list of 339 children’s names as “proof of Ukraine’s deception” in an X post that was shared more than 40,000 times. The messaging was further amplified by anonymous accounts with large audiences and public figures including Helena Villar, a Spanish reporter for the Russian state outlet RT with 190,000 followers on X.  

Figure 6. X post by the Russian Permanent Representative in Vienna, reposted by Spanish RT reporter Helena Villar.  

 

Other users who shared these narratives included current and former MEPs. The message was also amplified by a network of high-follower news aggregators and anonymous commentary accounts that share pro-Kremlin content. Previous research has identified frequently used tactics include laundering narratives originating from the Russian state through different actors with influential accounts.  

 Figure 8. A post by an X account with a track record of amplifying pro-Kremlin content. 

 

In the dataset, 488 posts included both narratives, promoting justifications for Russia’s deportation of children while advancing accusations that Ukraine is a global child trafficking hub. Many of these posts specifically praised Putin’s efforts to “rescue” these children.  

Figure 9. Posts on X containing both narratives: that Ukraine is involved in child trafficking and that Putin rescues Ukrainian children. 

 

ISD also found both narratives mentioned in The Child Traders documentary. In addition to accusing Ukrainian and British officials of child trafficking, an anonymous ‘whistleblower’ also justified Russia’s deportation of Ukrainian children, claiming they had been reunited with their parents. The absence of supporting evidence, combined with the whistleblower’s anonymity, suggests that these claims are likely false. 

As mentioned above, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) released a new batch of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein on 2 February 2026 – this release has renewed allegations that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was carried out to save children from an international ring of paedophiles. Thousands of posts on X referencing these new files claim, for example, that Ukrainian children removed from their country and sent to Russia were deported ‘for their own safety’. While this narrative has been circulating online for years, ISD analysis found a significant uptick in posts referencing it after the DoJ released the new batch of files on 2 February. Of all X posts mentioning this narrative from September 2024 until 3 February 2026, more than 89% of them (15,914 of 17,818) were published in just 48 hours, between 2-3 February.  

The most popular post in this set came from a pro-Kremlin user with over 159K followers and stated “When it’s confirmed in the Epstein files that Vladimir Putin didn’t kidnap children from Ukraine, instead evacuated them to protect them from being sold into child sex trafficking…” This post was reposted more than 8.1K times on X in 48 hours and obtained more than 2 million views.  

 

 Figure 10. A post on X alleges that Putin evacuated children from Ukraine for their own safety   

 

The wording of the post was, however, quickly interpreted by other users as confirmation that the Epstein files proved that “Vladimir Putin didn’t kidnap children from Ukraine, but instead evacuated them to protect them from being sold into child sex trafficking.” Others claimed that Epstein “ran” this operation together with Zelensky.  

 Another post that also gained significant engagement stated that Putin “saved Ukrainian children from being victims of the Ukraine pipeline to the Epstein child sacrificing paedophile elite. Then the world convicted him as a war criminal as punishment for doing so.” This post was shared more than 1,000 times.  

The rapid spread of these posts highlights how pro-Kremlin accounts have exploited the Epstein news to push a narrative that undermines Ukraine and casts Russia and Putin in a favourable light. 

Conclusion 

The sheer volume and sensationalist tone of misleading content observed in this research serves to obscure, and at times justify, Russia’s deportations of Ukrainian children. Amplification by prominent accounts both launders these narratives and expands their reach to broad audiences. Notably, these actors often mention and attempt to whitewash the reputation of Russian President Putin, despite an arrest warrant from the ICC for the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children.  

These findings illustrate a broader information operations ecosystem in which state-linked actors, sanctioned media outlets and sympathetic political figures reinforce one another to normalise and justify Russian actions. By amplifying sensationalistic and unsubstantiated claims, these networks divert attention from documented abuses and dilute public understanding of the issue. Ultimately, these narratives shift focus away from the victims at the centre of the crisis: Ukrainian children and families affected by forced deportations. Countering such false narratives is essential to ensure that the rights of affected children remain central to public and policy discussions. 

The sole responsibility for any content supported by the European Media and Information Fund lies with the author(s) and it may not necessarily reflect the positions of the EMIF and the Fund Partners, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the European University Institute.