Inside the digital hunt for Ukraine’s missing children 

THE HAGUE — The investigators and digital experts gathered in The Hague called it a “hackathon,” but the target was not a piece of software — it was missing Ukrainian children.

Over two days in mid-April, teams from 18 countries convened in Europol’s headquarters to comb through photographs, social media profiles and metadata, seeking information about children believed to have been abducted by the Kremlin and taken to Russia, Belarus or occupied areas of Ukraine.

“It looked a bit like a 1990s computer party,” said Paolo Di Rocco, one of the Europol investigators involved in the operation. “Everyone brought their own specialized expertise.”

Di Rocco spoke to WELT — which, like POLITICO, is part of the Axel Springer Global Reporters Network — from Europol’s headquarters in The Hague, a building that rises from the city like a concrete ship, complete with a narrow, fish-filled moat. 

The operation, which representatives of the International Criminal Court also attended, was part of a broader effort by Europol to investigate one of the most sensitive areas of Russia’s war on Ukraine — the systematic abduction of what Kyiv says are at least 19,500 children.

The investigators began with very little information — a name, a date of birth, sometimes a photo. In a process Di Rocco called “forensic detective work,” they checked whether a child’s image appeared on social media and whether photos found online revealed a location or a timestamp. Di Rocco likened the effort to assembling a puzzle, piece by piece.

Of a list of roughly 100 children provided to Europol by Kyiv, the investigators found new leads in 45 cases, Di Rocco said. 

Those leads included possible transport routes, individuals potentially involved in the abductions and facilities where children may have been taken. Europol has since handed the findings to Ukrainian authorities, who will decide how to use them in ongoing investigations. 

The work is aimed not only at finding the children, but at identifying those responsible — organizers, accomplices and the structures behind the removals. Criminal proceedings could follow first in Ukraine and potentially before international courts. 

The issue is already at the center of international efforts to hold Moscow accountable. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s children’s rights commissioner, over the alleged unlawful deportation and transfer of Ukrainian children. 

A U.N. international commission of inquiry has accused Moscow of committing crimes against humanity and of systematically obstructing the return of the children. 

Russia denies abducting children and says it has evacuated them from war zones. Lvova-Belova has portrayed herself as rescuing Ukrainian children, and has publicly said she adopted a boy from Mariupol and raised him to become a “patriot.” In an interview cited by German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk, she also said that 390 children had been flown to foster families in Russia after one operation. 

Human rights experts suspect that these children are being subjected to re-education, including being forced to speak Russian instead of Ukrainian.

Di Rocco said the known cases are likely only a fraction of the total. “We don’t know the full scale of the phenomenon,” he said. The number, he added, is likely to be significantly higher than what Ukrainian authorities have documented.

Europol’s findings suggest some children have been placed with Russian families, while others have been sent to camps or institutions where they may be re-educated. In some cases, there are indications that older teenagers have been sent to the front lines.

“The only limit is our imagination,” Di Rocco said of the possible forms of exploitation.

Alexander Dinger is WELT’s investigations editor. Philipp Woldin is a reporter for WELT. 

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