Gazprom, Putin's Oil Empire, Took Ukraine's Children. The U.S. Just Committed $25 Million to Bring Them Home.

 March 27, 2026 | American Ukraine Committee

The U.S. Government Just Made a Historic $25 Million Commitment to Bring Ukraine's Children Home

This week brought a piece of news that demands your attention — and your action.

The U.S. Department of State has announced $25 million in new funding to support the identification, return, and rehabilitation of Ukrainian children forcibly transferred to Russian-controlled territories. This is not a symbolic gesture. It is a concrete commitment to find children who were taken, return them to their families, and help them heal.

The funding will support two core programs: tracking and identifying children who have been forcibly separated from their homes — a critical step for diplomatic efforts — and providing returned children with the psychological care and community support they need to rebuild their lives.

👉 The funding opportunity is publicly available here:

This announcement, made through the Office of the Spokesperson, reflects a sustained U.S. commitment to Ukraine's most vulnerable victims — children who had no say in a war that tore them from everything they knew.

Ukraine is grateful for this unwavering American commitment — proof that the United States stands not only with Ukraine's soldiers, but with its children.

The Crime That Cannot Be Ignored

On the same day, a bombshell report from the Yale School of Public Health's Humanitarian Research Lab gave us the clearest picture yet of who made this crime possible — and how.

The report, "Willing Accomplices: Gazprom & Rosneft's Role in the Transport and Indoctrination of Ukraine's Children", published March 25, 2026, concludes with high confidence that at least two Russian state-owned energy giants — Gazprom and Rosneft — directly underwrote and facilitated the transportation and re-education of approximately 2,158 children from Russian-occupied Ukraine between 2022 and 2025.

This is the first definitive public proof of these corporations' role in Russia's systematic campaign of child deportation and indoctrination.

Children from Donetsk, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts were taken to at least six camps in Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea — three of which were owned by Gazprom subsidiaries at the time the children were present. At these facilities, children were subjected to what the companies themselves called "patriotic education initiatives" — programs designed to erase Ukrainian identity and replace it with loyalty to the Kremlin.

The evidence? The companies published it themselves. Social media posts. Press releases. Corporate documents. Gazprom and Rosneft bragged about it.

👉 Read the full Yale HRL report:

Who Did This — and Who Profits

Yale HRL identified 44 entities — camps, subsidiaries, trade unions, and corporate directors — involved in the transport and re-education of Ukraine's children. 80% of them are currently not under sanctions by the United States or Europe.

The chain of command runs directly to the top. Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller and Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin — both among Vladimir Putin's closest allies, both already under individual sanctions — lead corporations that their own subsidiaries used to move Ukraine's children into indoctrination camps. Neither man has made any public statement about these findings.

In March 2026, the United States temporarily lifted sanctions on Russian oil and gas exports to stabilize global energy markets.

As a result, Gazprom and Rosneft are now, for the first time, earning revenue from U.S. consumer spending — at the same moment they stand accused as accomplices to alleged war crimes involving children.

This is not sustainable. And it is not acceptable.

Sanctions on Russia must remain in place until there is full accountability for its aggression against Ukraine and respect for international law. Lifting them prematurely rewards corporations complicit in the abduction of children and the destruction of Ukrainian families.

👉 Tell your representatives:

Two Numbers That Tell the Story

2,158

— the confirmed minimum number of Ukrainian children taken to Russian re-education camps with support from Gazprom and Rosneft.

3,183

— the possible true number, if all 1,025 vouchers issued by Gazprom subsidiaries in 2023 were redeemed. Behind every number is a child. A family. A life interrupted.

What Congress Must Do

The State Department's $25 million commitment is a vital step. But funding alone is not enough. Legislation is needed — and two critical bills are waiting for Senate support.

S.Res. 236 calls for the return of abducted Ukrainian children before finalizing any peace agreement to end the war. Their safe return must be a humanitarian precondition — not an afterthought — of any lasting resolution.

👉 Urge your Senators to support S.Res. 236:

S. 2119, the Abducted Ukrainian Children Recovery and Accountability Act, strengthens the mechanisms to identify, recover, and return abducted children — and ensures consequences for those responsible.

👉 Urge your Senators to support S. 2119:

Peace built without accountability is not peace. It is impunity. And impunity, history tells us, only invites more violence.

The Bottom Line

America is stepping up. The $25 million commitment to track and return Ukraine's children is a demonstration of values — that the most vulnerable victims of this war will not be forgotten in any diplomatic framework.

But the Yale HRL report reminds us: the infrastructure of this crime is still largely unsanctioned, still largely operational, and — for one month at least — still profitable through American energy markets.

Ukraine's children deserve more than a funding announcement. They deserve justice. They deserve return. They deserve a peace that includes them.

Your voice matters.

Resources & Sources

📄 Yale HRL Report — Willing Accomplices: Gazprom & Rosneft's Role in the Transport and Indoctrination of Ukraine's Children (March 25, 2026):https://files-profile.medicine.yale.edu/documents/685979f1-6c89-4295-a765-d6fee48357e3

📰 U.S. Department of State — United States Launches New $25 Million Effort to Support the Return and Rehabilitation of Forcibly Relocated Ukrainian Children (March 26, 2026): https://www.state.gov/releases/office-of-the-spokesperson/2026/03/united-states-launches-new-25-million-effort-to-support-the-return-and-rehabilitation-of-forcibly-relocated-ukrainian-children

🔗 Funding Opportunity on Grants.gov:https://www.grants.gov/search-results-detail/361686

📢 Support S.Res. 236 — Return Abducted Ukrainian Children:https://www.amukr.org/support-sres-236-return-abducted-ukrainian-children#/26/

📢 Support S. 2119 — Recover Abducted Ukrainian Children:https://www.amukr.org/support-s-2119-recover-abducted-ukrainian-children

📢 Do Not Lift Sanctions on Russia: https://www.amukr.org/do-not-lift-sanctions-on-russia#/45/